Pershing Square Foundation announces prize to fund cognitive health research

The Pershing Square Foundation announced the launch of the Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discover prize to establish a community of multidisciplinary investigators who can improve understanding of the brain and cognition.

According to a foundation release, the MIND prize aims to facilitate collaboration across academic departments and institutions and among the academic, biomedical industry, philanthropic and business communities. Applicants must have 1 to 10 years of experience running their own laboratories; hold a PhD, MD or MD-PhD, or equivalent; and be affiliated with a U.S. research institution. Prize winners will receive $750,000, distributed in $250,000 increments over 3 years.

“Bold, innovative projects need funding at the earliest stages,” Olivia Tournay Flatto, PhD, president of the Pershing Square Foundation and co-Founder and executive director of the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, said in the release. “This initiative will break down the barriers across disciplines to foster stimulating and novel discoveries in the human brain, leading to a transformative understanding of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, and, ultimately, cures.”

The MIND Prize scientific advisory board is comprised of 19 academics and clinicians, including Fred “Rusty” Gage, PhD, president and professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

“There is a great need to support early-to-mid-career investigators to think outside the box and explore novel avenues in neurodegenerative disease research,” he said in the release. “I think The Pershing Square Foundation’s MIND Prize is a timely and crucial initiative which fills this funding gap and targets one of the most important challenges that we face.”

The deadline to submit a letter of intent is Dec. 12, 2022.