Funding boost for Brain Awareness Week

3 March 2009

Bristol Neuroscience (BN) has been awarded £4,500 by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for public engagement work, bringing the total amount raised by BN for this year's Brain Awareness Week activities to £18,000.

The award recognises BN’s commitment to public engagement and is an endorsement of this year’s programme of activities. It will enable BN to run the biggest festival of events taking place in and around Brain Awareness Week (18 to 22 March 2009) since it first introduced Bristol to the annual festival of neuroscience, joining countries across the world in celebrating the brain.

All the events marking Brain Awareness Week in Bristol take place thanks to the partnership of principal sponsor The Physiological Society, BBSRC, Research Councils UK, Quartet Community Foundation and the Medical Research Council, with support from science centre At-Bristol, the University of Bristol's Centre for Public Engagement and the University of the West of England.

The activities, aimed at both children and adults, are designed to enable neuroscientists to celebrate the brain with members of the public. The benefits include:

giving researchers the chance to highlight their research, and be newly inspired and motivated in their work;
giving members of the public the chance to question and talk to the people who are actually doing the research;
raising awareness of the importance of our brain and how to protect it from injury and disease;
encouraging neuroscientists of the future to think of science careers;
discovering the excitement and rewards of finding out about the truly amazing brain;
empowering the public to engage in debate on issues in neuroscience; and, last but not least
having fun!

The full programme of activities is available at Bristol Neuroscience website.

For more information on BN activities, please see the news item on brain workshops.

Please contact Anne Cooke for further information.

Further information

BN Neuroscience is one of the key areas of research at the University of Bristol. Furthermore, the city of Bristol has one of the largest concentrations of researchers engaged in neuroscience in the UK, many of whom are internationally recognised. In 2003, BN was established in order to enable all neuroscientists working in Bristol – both within the University and its partner hospitals across the city – to make full use of all available resources and expertise. BN runs numerous activities to encourage the dissemination of ideas, to create opportunities for interdisciplinary research, and to facilitate the pursuit of neuroscience to the highest possible standard.