My winning proposal: Open your mind to US Alzheimer’s funding

With the right skills, non-US scientists can unlock overlooked US funders, like the BrightFocus Foundation

Top tips

• For many US funders, your aims should be independently achievable, rather than interdependent
• Ask your research office for help writing a ‘biosketch’ if it’s your first one
• Preliminary data is important, more so than for most European funders
• Find collaborators expert in techniques if you don’t have a track record or the facilities
• Refer to patient benefit, which is a particular focus for this funder

Most researchers find out whether a proposal has been funded by email. And with Henrietta Nielsen, an associate professor in neurobiology at Stockholm University in Sweden, it was that way too. However, she also found out she’d been awarded a Standard Grant from the BrightFocus Foundation just before chairing an opening panel at an Alzheimer’s disease conference in Lisbon, Portugal.