The Lundbeck Foundation Awards $750,000 Grant to SfN for Next Phase of BrainFacts.org
WASHINGTON, DC — The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has received a five-year grant of $750,000 ($150,000 annually) from the Lundbeck Foundation in Denmark, to join as a Supporting Partner of BrainFacts.org. The Lundbeck Foundation joins the growing list of site partners from around the world, which includes The Kavli Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Brain Initiative Alliance in partnership with SfN. Lundbeck Foundation is a leading Danish foundation (www.lundbeckfonden.com), which each year awards The Brain Prize (www.thebrainprize.org) - a 1 million Euro personal research prize. The award is open to researchers around the world and recognizes highly original and influential advances in any area of neuroscience.
Relaunched last year with an interactive brain model and a suite of new multimedia features, BrainFacts.org encourages the exploration and discovery of neuroscience. The site has received nearly 8 million users, recorded more than 9.6 million sessions, and more than 15 million page views. The grant from The Brain Prize will allow SfN to continue to build on the expanded value provided by the new BrainFacts.org site.
“This new partnership with Lundbeck Foundation will be critical in powering the next phase of BrainFacts.org and will enable the development of increased content, including enhanced multimedia and interactive content,” said Richard Huganir, SfN President. “This support will maintain the great momentum that we gathered last year and focus it on articles and resources on new tools and technologies in brain science and innovative research.”
“Neuroscience is our focus area and on an annual basis we fund Danish based biomedical research with approximately $100 million, which more than half is within neuroscience,” said Professor Thomas Sinkjær, Senior Vice President Grants & Prizes, Lundbeck Foundation. “Having The Brain Prize as an international beacon for neuroscience, we work on establishing long term partnerships with other organizations for the benefit of Danish and international neuroscience. By supporting Brainfacts.org and collaborating with SfN we are taking the next steps in internationalization of our activities and expansion of our outreach.”
In addition to allowing visitors to explore the brain in all its complexity, BrainFacts.org encourages fundamental understanding of the brain and nervous system as well. Interactive and animated core concepts guide visitors through the eight key ideas that underpin everything we know about how the brain works. BrainFacts.org also provides tools for educators to engage students at all stages of learning about the brain and nervous system with dedicated online and classroom exercises.
“We are very excited about this significant new partnership and look forward to continuing to create compelling and innovative resources designed to inform the global audience,” said John Morrison, BrainFacts.org Editor-in-Chief.
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 37,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and nervous system.
