Australia partners with the US on brain research

The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) today opened a joint funding round as part of the US Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative — part of a presidential focus aimed at revolutionising our understanding of the human brain.

The human brain remains one of the most complex mysteries in science, with underlying causes of most neurological and psychiatric conditions remaining largely unknown. It is hoped that research conducted through the BRAIN Initiative will lead to more effective treatments and methods of prevention for brain conditions such as dementia, autism, epilepsy, depression and Parkinson’s disease.

According to NHMRC CEO Professor Anne Kelso, “Both the NIH and NHMRC believe that the ambitious goals of the BRAIN Initiative can best be attained by collaborating across both disciplinary and geographic boundaries.” As such, the NHMRC will provide funding to support Australian researchers to participate in the initiative.

“Australia and the US have a long history of successful collaboration in research,” Professor Kelso continued. “Indeed, over the past four decades Australian researchers have collaborated more with researchers in the US than in any other country.

“I am very pleased that NHMRC is able to help foster Australia’s contribution to this exciting project and I look forward to the results of this new partnership.”

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