Every year, 4.7 million Australians are diagnosed with one of the conditions that the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health (the Florey) study. That’s why the Florey believes that everyone has a stake in health and medical research.
From mental health to epilepsy, stroke, dementia and basic discovery science, they are at the forefront of science's final frontier.
The Florey is the largest brain research group in the Southern Hemisphere and in the top 10 of the world’s best brain research centres. In 1963, brothers Ken and Baillieu Myer, along with Ian Potter, worked with founding director, Derek Denton, to raise money to establish a medical research institute. This great act of philanthropy was the beginning of the Florey’s 55-year history and their connections to the community remain strong.
The Florey’s partnership with Hearts and Minds Investments Limited (HM1) is a testament to this wonderful collaborative spirit. As a celebrated member of the Florey Alumni community, Dr Mark Nelson is a former PhD student and lifelong Florey supporter. As Chair and Co-Founder of Caledonia Investments, Mark nominated the Florey as a beneficiary of HM1.
Today HM1 donates to the Florey encouraging the development of medicines and driving a new generation of medical research in Australia. The impact of this investment to the Florey's work is invaluable, as Mark notes, “Neuroscience is an area that the world really needs to focus on. Any investor will think very carefully about where they want their money to go. This initiative isn’t a band-aid. This aims at big ideas; at prevention and ways we can have far-reaching effects on human health. It’s almost at the stage that if we don’t fund brain research now and wait 20 years, we’ll look back and think ‘oh, that was a mistake. If only we’d done something at the time’.”
With thanks to Caledonia Investments and Hearts & Minds Investments Limited, Florey scientists continue to conduct important research in the area of brain and mind.
As part of our impact video series, we spoke with two key researchers at the Florey Institute for Neuroscience, discussing the importance of medical research and their recent breakthroughs. You can watch the video below.
