National Neuroscience Facility opens for business

Cooperative competition -- or 'coopetition' -- was the name of the game last night at the launch of the AUD$18 million National Neuroscience Facility in Melbourne.

The new facility's CEO, Assoc Prof William Hart, said that neuroscientists were a naturally competitive bunch, but in the quest to find answers to diseases and disorders of the brain and mind, researchers were willing to bring different disciplines together to efficiently work towards their goals.

The new facility comprises eight technology platforms covering clinical, molecular and integrative aspects of neuroscience, with state-of-the art equipment, laboratories and resources.

Launching the NNF, Commonwealth Science Minister Peter McGauran said the new facility would play a vital role in finding cures and reducing the impact and incidence of debilitating diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia and dementia.

"Current neuroscience research offers real hope for cures," McGauran said.

Prof David Penington, the chairman of Neurosciences Australia, which has been set up to manage the NNF, said that the NNF was part of the changing pattern of science, with the trend heading toward large multi-disciplinary teams of scientists tackling problems with a range of approaches and skills, rather than the single scientist working alone in his ivory tower.

Partnerships with industry were also critical to advancing science, he said, as they were required to drive the development and delivery of drugs to the marketplace.

"We can rightly say that the science of the brain is the science of the 21st century," Penington said.