University of Calgary launches $10M Hopewell MIND Prize for mental health
Thanks to a $10 million philanthropic gift, the University of Calgary Hotchkiss Brain Institute is launching the Hopewell MIND Prize, offering up to $1 million a year over the next decade to fund "innovative, high-impact brain and mental health projects."
"It will fund research projects that are ‘ahead of the curve’ and at a critical crossroads where an injection of funding has the potential to transform the project into significant community impact," read a release.
MIND stands for Maximizing Innovation in Neuroscience Discovery and the gift came from Sanders Lee, a Calgary philanthropist and founder of the Hopewell Group of Companies.
“I've always been a supporter of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and Dr. David Park approached me with what he called a bold idea,” says Lee. “I think at the end of the day, I’m a risk taker, and I loved the idea.
"I want this research prize to be a catalyst for ground breaking discoveries in brain and mental health, and to help us expand our innovation ecosystem with breakthroughs that benefit humankind.”
Funding will be awarded to one individual each year and submissions will be judged by three top international neuroscientists, including Dr. Beth Stevens, associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School; associate professor of Neurology, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, along with Dr. Alon Chen, PhD, president of the Weizmann Institute of Science and head of the Max Planck Society in Munich, Germany, and Dr. Nelson Spruston, PhD, senior director of scientific programs at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Ashburn, Va.
The first prize will be awarded in fall 2022 and applications are being accepted now. Winning researchers must be members of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute when their prize is awarded. More information is available online.
“This prize will continue to put UCalgary at the cutting edge, allowing researchers to be creative, bold and transformational, said Park, director of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. "And this will attract the best and brightest to Calgary, to UCalgary and to Alberta.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre unrepentant over calling Trudeau 'wacko' as his MPs say Speaker should resign
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.