Scientific Innovations Award

BRF’s annual Scientific Innovations Award supports creative, cutting edge research in well-established research laboratories, under the direction of distinguished investigators.

Scientific Innovations Award Guidelines

BRF funds the most innovative and high-impact brain research projects. To learn more about our application guidelines for the Scientific Innovations Award, click below.

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Award Archive

Investigations supported by Scientific Innovations Awards yield high-impact findings and result in major grant applications and significant publications in respected journals.

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Brain Research Foundation Mechanistic dissection of three-dimensional regulatory architecture in neurodevelopmental disorders
Among the most intriguing discoveries to emerge from technological advances in recent years are the insights into how the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the genome influences many aspects of local…
Brain Research Foundation Do dopamine signals promote flexible behavior by recruiting synchronized brain rhythms?
Problems with cognition are the major cause of disability in schizophrenia. One idea is that these result from having too little dopamine in a part of the brain called the…
Brain Research Foundation Interrogating Experience-Induced Gene Regulatory Network Dynamics in Interneurons
Understanding the complex relationships between gene expression, neuronal plasticity, and behavior is a fundamental goal of neuroscience. However the brain contains many types of neurons. Therefore, a systematic understanding of…
Brain Research Foundation Imaging dynamics of endogenous protein interactions in single dendritic spines
Changes in the efficiency of synaptic communications between neurons underlie learning and memory. This process is called synaptic plasticity and is caused by biochemical reactions mediated by hundreds of species…
Brain Research Foundation Single Mitochondrion Analysis and Engineering for Human Neurological Disease
The goal of this proposal is to enable new therapeutic modalities for treating mitochondrial diseases through the development and use of novel mitochondrial engineering procedures. While mammalian genome engineering has…
Brain Research Foundation Epigenetic Mechanisms Linking Cerebral Cortical Cell Types to Gene Expression and Connectivity
Brain circuits develop through an interaction between genetics and the environment. Previous studies have shown that there are at least two distinct phases in brain development. During a first genetically…
Brain Research Foundation Retrospective Neurogenomics in the Mouse
Many genetic factors or environmental exposures impact the immature brain in childhood or early adolescence, but cause psychiatric disease only at much later periods in life. These molecular mechanisms include…
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Scientific Innovation Awards are $150,000 grants directed at projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources, but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings.

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