BRAIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The goal of our research grant programs is to fund the most innovative projects that will bring about discoveries, treatments and ultimately, breakthroughs in novel treatments and eventual cures for devastating diseases and injuries of the brain and nervous system. In a report from 2017, the current estimated annual cost to American society of just nine of the most common neurological diseases is staggering, totaling $789 billion in 2014. And while society continues to reap the benefits of the dramatic research investments in heart disease and cancer over the last few decades, similar levels of investment have not yet been made in neuroscience research focused on curing devastating neurological diseases such as stroke and Alzheimer's. This research needs to be done to both to help patients and caregivers, but also to avoid costs so large they could destabilize the entire health care system and the national economy.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Seed Grant Program
The Fay/Frank Seed Grant Program is a competitive, peer-reviewed program that provides initial support for new research that has a strong potential to attract external funding. Seed grants enable scientists in the areas of basic, translational, or clinical research to explore interesting new research avenues without undue delay, generating critical preliminary data that can be used to develop competitive grant proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other external funding sources.
Scientific Innovations Award
The Brain Research Foundation (BRF) Annual Scientific Innovations Award supports innovative discovery science in both basic and clinical neuroscience. This funding mechanism is designed to support creative, cutting edge research in well-established research laboratories, under the direction of established investigators. This funding opportunity is for projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings in a very short timeframe. It is expected that investigations supported by these grants will yield high impact findings and result in major grant applications and significant publications in high impact journals.
Neuroscience Day
Neuroscience Day is an annual event sponsored by the Brain Research Foundation that introduces new, exciting research through poster presentations and lectures. This unique forum encourages scientific interaction among universities and gives the Chicago-area neuroscience community a chance to meet and share interests in an informal setting.
Educational Programs
Public health education and education through brochures, and seminars regarding the human brain and illnesses that affect it.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of research studies funded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Seed Grant Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Total grants funded via the Fay/Frank Seed Grant Award and the Scientific Innovations Award (1st year payments and 2nd year final payments)
Number of research or policy analysis products developed, e.g., reports, briefs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Academics
Related Program
Seed Grant Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Number of intermediary progress and financial reports and final progress and financial reports for a two-year grant cycle of Fay/Frank Seed Grants and Scientific Innovations Awards.
Number of organizations applying for grants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Academics
Related Program
Seed Grant Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
These are the number of invited scientists to apply to the Fay/Frank Seed Grant and Scientific Innovations Award. The number of Letter of Intent submissions is significantly higher.
Return on Investment
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Seed Grant Program
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
For every $1 awarded to a scientist on average they receive an additional $29 in additional funding from other sources (government, NIH, other private and public funding sources.)
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
For more than 60 years, BRF has accelerated the future of neuroscience discoveries by committing to funding research that will lead to novel treatments and prevention of all neurological diseases. This commitment is delivered through both research grant programs, which provide initial funding for innovative research projects, as well as educational programs for researchers and the general public.
Dr. Frederic A. Gibbs co-founded BRF in Chicago while working on new treatments for epilepsy. Instead of establishing a foundation focused solely on epilepsy, he recognized that a broader approach about how the brain and nervous system function would eventually lead to a greater understanding of the many diseases that result when they are compromised.
BRF provides crucial start-up money for innovative neuroscience research projects with the goal of finding the prevention and eventual cures of devastating neurological conditions and diseases. Simply put, we are the venture capital investors of brain research. Recently, we expanded to reach even more scientists by opening up the grant and award program to neuroscientists throughout the nation.
Our quest to understand how the brain works is done through our two nationally esteemed grant programs, the Fay/Frank Seed Grant Program and our Scientific Innovations Award Program.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Since 1981, the Fay/Frank Seed Grant Program has been investing in worthy and innovative neuroscience research, which funds promising investigations that drive advances in our knowledge of how the brain functions. Seed grants are $80,000 two-year awards and provide support for novel scientific hypotheses that may not be funded by other sources. Our seed grant funding allows the researchers to gather the much-needed preliminary data that will enable them to obtain additional larger, outside grants to continue their research.
More recently we have established the Scientific Innovations Award (SIAs). SIAs provide $150,000 over two years to help established and productive neuroscience investigators sustain innovative research projects that have high potential to yield significant findings and deepen our understanding of the brain.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Brain Research Foundation grants and awards are offered on a competitive basis. Each year we invite qualified institutions in the United States to apply. Candidates must first be nominated by his or her institution and must submit a detailed research proposal. Proposals that meet grant or award requirements move forward to peer review by BRF's Scientific Review Committee through a process that determines their relative scientific merit.
The Scientific Review Committee (SRC) is comprised of 8 leading experts in their field whose goal is to provide unbiased opinions and recommendations for the best projects to fund. Our panel of experienced neuroscientists represents multiple disciplines and conducts the review process using rigorous protocols like those at the National Institutes of Health.
The SRC is crucial to the mission and integral to the success of BRF. The grants and awards that are recommended for funding by the SRC represent an increasingly important source of support for neuroscience research and the investigators who pursue it. As federal funding across the spectrum of brain-related abnormalities remains static or continues to decline, total dollars awarded by BRF have increased 248% over the last decade.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
It is an extremely exciting time in neuroscience and we are on the cusp of many discoveries, but there is much more to be done. BRF grants are crucial to the landscape of neuroscience. The application process for federal government grants is highly competitive and favors established over new investigators. The vast majority of proposals are declined and funding for innovative research is extremely limited. The National Institute of Aging, which funds research on diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia, can fund only 6% of scientists that apply for research funding. BRF fills a very large gap for many scientists. In a recent survey, 50% of top researchers said insufficient funding caused them to abandon an area of investigation “central" to their lab's mission.
In order to receive funding in such a competitive landscape, researchers depend on much needed grants, like those we provide, to begin to prove the viability and importance of their work. The finding our grants recipients have generated pave the way to larger grants to enable them to continue their research.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
BRAIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Board of directorsas of 02/16/2024
Mr. Scott Serota
Thomas A. Reynolds III
Winston & Strawn
John D. Mabie
Mid-Continent Capital, LLC
Nathan Hansen
PwC
David H. Fishburn
Bennett L. Leventhal, M.D.
University of California San Francisco
Diane B. Jastromb
Robert C. Malenka, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanford University
Gary Fencik
Adams Street Partners
Scott Serota
Bill Gantz
PathoCapital
David Olson
Richard Kohn
Goldberg Kohn
Marshall Front
Front Barnett Associates
Douglas Walter
David Purcell
Continental Advisors
Gail Elden
Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D.
James Byrd, CTFA
Northern Trust
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/28/2020GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.