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Listfriends -- I thought you would be interested in knowing the outcome of an all-day meeting in new york last friday to consider applications for this year's International Research Grants Program (IRGP), an annual activity through which the Parkinson's Disease Foundation makes grants to promising Parkinson's research programs in the U.S. and around the world. Our committee of 10, headed by Dr. Stanley Fahn, our scientific research director, reviewed a total of 69 proposals (more than twice last year's crop!) and made a total of 17 awards, each of up to $35,000 for one year's work. The total: more than $600,000 for "cutting-edge" inquiry into the cause and cure of Parkinson's. Overall, there was a wonderful sense of optimism and respect during the committee discussions of the various proposals -- good stuff, so much of it, new and intriguing, underscoring the growing feeling that the best basic scientists here and around the world are paying more attention to Parkinson's as the area in which they want to spend their time. For me, newer to this field than most of you, it is especially exhilerating to see how much more is going on in the private support of science among our several organizations -- APDA's research awards, NPF's seed grants program, PI's fine in-house work (speaking of which, congrats on the great "twins" report of two weeks ago!), our own at the PDF -- than there was even two years ago. As I tell our own financial contributors at the PDF, this is all your fault! It is YOU who make possible this growing private support of the most promising research, in the hands of the best scientists, seeking the cause and cure of Parkinson's in the most expeditious way. In this connection, I want to salute one private donor in particular --the Tuchman Foundation -- for helping us in this year's campaign with a generous challenge grant. I also want to thank all those who have been working hard on Parkinson's Power Across America, a cross-country funds-and-visibility-raising bike-hike-kayak trek for Parkinson's disease research that begins next month and will be helping to fund next year's program of privately-funded Parkinson's research. (We'll be putting out a notice of this on the ListServ later this week; in the meantime, you can tune in to the PPAA website: parkinsponspower.org). we will have a list prepared of all the successful applicants to IRGP in a couple of days (after we have had a chance to notify the scientists themselves); e-mail me or call if you would like us to send you a copy. (The other PD organizations will be receiving a report routinely, as they have notified us of their awards, so that we can avoid duplicating grants). best to all -- robin elliott, executive director, parkinson's disease foundation