Weston Brain Institute: Rapid Response Program

For three generations, the Weston Family Foundation has pursued its mission to enhance and enrich the lives of Canadians. With a focus on health and landscapes, the Foundation aims to catalyze inquiry and innovation to bring about long-term change. Now in its sixth decade, the Foundation continues to collaborate with a broad range of Canadian charities to further world-class research, explore new ideas, and create tangible benefits for the communities in which it works.

Today, the Foundation takes a leadership role in tackling large problems, in both health and landscapes, thar are under-addressed. Among these, neurodegenerative diseases (NDAs) such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, are placing a particularly large and increasing physical, emotional, and financial toll on the individuals they affect, their families and the society at large. Therefore, the Foundation, through its Weston Brain Institute (the “Institute), seeks to accelerate the development of therapeutics and tools that address the unmet need for effective ways to prevent, diagnose and/or treat NDAs.

The Rapid Response program was designed to address this challenge by providing seed funding to quickly identify and validate novel, high-risk, high-reward ideas that have the potential to be translated into impactful therapies for NDAs. Through this and other programs, the Foundation aims to catalyze and scale science-based approaches to significantly improve the health and well-being of Canadians.

Important things to know about the Foundation:

• Focus is on translational research.
• Funds are provided contingent on meeting milestones. If your project is awarded, funds are provided in tranches when milestones are successfully completed.
• Our application process is interactive. We strongly encourage all potential applicants to reach out should there be any questions about the program (e.g., if you wish to discuss the eligibility or fit of your project). During the review process, you may receive additional questions from the review committee that need to be addressed prior to final decisions being made to invite a project to submit a full Proposal or for a project to be recommended for funding.
• Many projects are declined at the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage. Historically, only

~15% of LOIs are invited to the Proposal phase, so that applicants and reviewers spend their time on Proposals that have an excellent chance of being funded.

• Proposal funding rates have ranged from 30-50%.
• We provide more than funding. Our grantees may also benefit from opportunities such as, the expert advice from our scientific advisors, industry exposure, networking, and international collaboration opportunities.