Alzheimer's Research Initiative
| Alzheimer's Research Initiative (AFI) |
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|---|---|
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| legal form | non-profit registered association |
| founding | July 28, 1995 |
| Seat | Dusseldorf |
| purpose | Promoter of Alzheimer Research |
| Employees | 15th |
| Website | www.alzheimer-forschung.de |
The Alzheimer Research Initiative e. V. (AFI) is a national, non - profit association based in Düsseldorf . The initiative, founded in 1995, is the largest independent and private sponsor of Alzheimer's research in Germany. It has two tasks: to promote the causes, diagnosis and clinical research in connection with Alzheimer's disease and to make information about this disease available to the public. The work of the AFI is financed by donations . The Alzheimer Research Initiative is a signatory of the Transparent Civil Society Initiative and has been awarded the donation certificate from the German Donation Council. The AFI ambassador is the journalist and sports presenter Okka Gundel .
Background of the Alzheimer's Research Initiative
The Alzheimer Research Initiative was founded in 1995 on the model of the Bright Focus Foundation (BFF) , which has been involved in research into Alzheimer's disease since 1985 as part of the Alzheimer Research Program. The Alzheimer Research Initiative cooperates within the framework of research funding with Alzheimer Nederland in the Netherlands and Vaincre Alzheimer in France.
Board of Directors of the Alzheimer's Research Initiative
The board is the management body of AFI and works on a voluntary basis. It decides on all matters that are of fundamental importance to AFI and monitors its activities from the point of view of expediency, economic efficiency and legality. Every year, the AFI Scientific Advisory Board proposes the projects that are worthy of funding. The board then approves these for funding.
Scientific Advisory Board of the Alzheimer Research Initiative
The expert committee also works on a voluntary basis and decides on the annual allocation of funding. Founding members of the Scientific Advisory Board included Konrad Beyreuther and Eva Braak. Award criteria for funding are the scientific value of a research project and its relevance to broadening our understanding of Alzheimer's disease. Each project submitted is evaluated in a peer review .
Tasks of the Alzheimer Research Initiative
AFI has two goals in mind to promote Alzheimer's research and to inform the public about the disease.
enlightenment
To educate the sick, family members and interested parties, the AFI has created a series of information brochures and non-fiction books on many aspects of the disease, which are available free of charge. According to the AFI, around 35,000 free information brochures are sent out to interested parties and around 5,000 consultations are held on the phone every year.
The website alzheimer-forschung.de provides extensive information on Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the internet service afi-kids.de was set up to offer parents and grandparents the opportunity to introduce children between the ages of five and ten years to the subject of Alzheimer's in a playful and careful manner.
Research funding
Because no single cause for the development of Alzheimer's disease is known to date and it is rather assumed that a whole range of factors can trigger the disease, the AFI promotes long-term research into different theories. This funding should lead to knowledge about the causes and mechanisms of action of the disease and thereby contribute to a stable research basis. The AFI hopes that the knowledge acquired on the basis of basic research will ultimately flow back into practice and benefit patients and relatives there. So that the AFI funds can be awarded to promising research projects, each project proposal is assessed by four internationally recognized Alzheimer's experts in the respective field.
Funding for research projects has been available since 1996, the year after AFI was founded . Since then, researchers have been called on every year to submit projects for research into Alzheimer's disease. Experienced scientists can apply for up to € 120,000 for a period of three years and young scientists for up to € 50,000 for two years. The call for proposals for funding takes place annually in January. International Training Grants support young scientists with a one to three month further education stay at a scientific institution. To further promote younger scientists, the Erwin Niehaus Prize of the Alzheimer Research Initiative was launched in 2012, followed by the Kurt Kaufmann Prize of the Alzheimer Research Initiative e. V.
By December 2019, AFI was able to fund 288 research activities with over € 11.2 million. The association has been named as a sponsor of research projects in over 400 scientific publications.
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.transparency.de ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 27, 2014
- ↑ Transparency. Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Standard and pilot projects. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .
Web links
- Homepage of the initiative
- afi-kids.de , playfully explain Alzheimer's to children