Neuroscience Grants
Learn about brain and cell research grants by browsing our curated list of top brain and cell research funders below. Members can also research funding opportunities using the search tool for GrantFinder. Become a member.
Funding Trends in Neuroscience Grants
As the population ages worldwide, rates of neurological disorders continue to rise. The World Health Organization estimates that 50 million people around the world are living with dementia, a number it expects to triple by 2050. The Parkinson’s Foundation calculates that close to 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s—a number that is likely to double by 2030.
Philanthropy is playing a significant role in the fight against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson and others like dementia. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is one of the most established such funders in this space, but new funders are emerging all the time from Google co-founder and billionaire Sergey Brin to collaborative funding arrangements, like the Tau Consortium, which focuses on understanding tau protein brain disorders, which includes Alzheimer’s and more than 20 other conditions.
At the same time, significant federal initiatives, including the BRAIN Initiative, which was developed to accelerate the development and application of new technologies focused on understanding brain cells and the complex neural circuits necessary for human thought.
Federal research funding on the brain is being supplemented by others that are trying to understand linkages to the science of learning, brain development as well as mental health and wellness. The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF), for instance, is one of the larger funders in the chain of discovery around mental health and brain science.
Beyond brain research is an emphasis on some big name funders on cellular science, particularly genomics. Like brain research, the goal is often to advance biological and medical research. For example, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Human Cell Atlas project is funding projects around better understanding many of the body’s 30 trillion cells. Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan aren’t the only big league philanthropists interested in better understanding human cells. Paul Allen has created a new institute for cell science. And Eli and Edythe Broad have been the main benefactors of the Broad Institute, a key player in cell research.
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