Advocacy Network Newsletter

Urge Congress to Support Neuroscience in FY2023

Join your fellow NeuroAdvocates in urging Congress to support neuroscience priorities and increase research funding for Fiscal Year 2023. Send your Representative and Senators a message via SfN’s Advocacy Action Center and personalize it by including why robust federal funding is critical to your research and necessary to advance our understanding of the brain.

Register for Congressional Briefing on the Impacts of Long-Haul COVID-19

SfN, the American Academy of Neurology, American Brain Coalition, and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in cooperation with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus (CNC) are hosting a virtual congressional briefing, The Long-Haul Neurological and Psychological Impacts from COVID-19, Wednesday, May 18 from 2:00 - 3:00pm ET. Along with opening remarks from the co-chairs of the CNC, Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), hear from experts in the field and a patient advocate on the impacts of long-haul COVID-19 symptoms on the brain and what society is predicted to see moving forward.

The Advocacy Forum Webinar Available On-Demand

SfN's Advocacy Forum webinar, How to Advocate for Mental Health Research, is now available to watch on-demand. Listen to experts in the field discuss best practices for advocating for mental health research and how the media and neuroscience community can work together to increase awareness for continued foundational mental health research, an area that has become critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NSF Releases Five-Year Strategic Plan

The National Science Foundation has released their 2022-2026 strategic plan. The plan outlines NSF's mission, vision, core values, goals, and objectives over the next five years for the future of discovery and innovation at NSF. Among the strategic goals and objectives are empowering STEM talent, discovering new knowledge, impacting society by translating knowledge into solutions, and exceling at NSF operations all of which will serve as a foundation for ensuring NSF and the nation remain at the forefront of scientific discovery.

Take Action to Support Brain Donation Awareness Day

Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) recently introduced a resolution to designate May 7th of each year as “Brain Donation Awareness Day.” Post-mortem brain donation is critically important to advance the science of treating and curing degenerative brain diseases. To learn more about this initiative, the American Brain Coalition (ABC), along with the Brain Donor Project and the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus (CNC), hosted a briefing: The Importance of Brain Donation for Treating and Curing Brain Disease. Along with this, ABC has created an action alert asking your Representative to co-sponsor this resolution designating May 7 as “Brain Donation Awareness Day.”

NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare Requesting Information

The NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) has issued a request for information (RFI) from the public on flexibilities available to IACUCs for conducting semiannual program reviews as an additional opportunity to reduce administrative burden. These flexibilities may be used alone or in combination to meet the individual needs and circumstances of each institution. If interested, any voluntary and anonymous responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically on the RFI webpage on or before August 1, and may be made available on the OLAW website.

Apply Now for a 2022 Global 3Rs Award

The Global 3Rs Awards program is a collaboration between AAALAC International and the IQ Consortium recognizing significant innovative contributions toward the 3Rs of animal research to advance ethical science, by any researcher in academia or industry in any area of biology. Up to four Global Awards will be presented in 2022 in the amount of $5,000 each. Award nominations must be based on a primary research paper that advances any of the 3Rs (i.e., the Refinement, Replacement or Reduction of animal use) and is published in a peer-reviewed journal in the last three years. Applications are open until June 1.

SfN Advocacy Resources:

• Introduce yourself to the new Congress via the Advocacy Action Center.
• Watch the Neuroscientist’s Guide to Advocacy series to understand the tools you need to help advance the field.
• Learn how to engage your members of Congress and effectively advocate for science with SfN's Advocacy Best Practices.
• Get involved in global advocacy.
• Talk to the public about the importance of animal research.
• Reach out to advocacy@sfn.org for assistance in preparing for your next advocacy effort at home or on Capitol Hill.

To have the newsletter delivered to your inbox each month, sign in to your member account and opt in to the Advocacy Network.