During this decade of existence, our foundation applied its efforts to promote advancement in neurofeedback, neuromodulation and qEEG for research and clinical applications. We conducted several pilot research projects, put together teams of clinicians and neurofeedback specialists to submit for grants, some of which resulted in federal funding (e.g., CNP project), and pursued other forms of fundraising (ISNR members’ donations, vendors’ donations, named mini-grant sponsorship, legacy donation, silent auction, fundraising dinners, etc.).
During this past year we appointed new board members and advisors and became more focused on our primary activities such as fundraising (silent auction, donation solicitation, bequest, etc.), funding students c/o our mini-grants program (during the last 5 years we have funded 10 and now have funding cycles on a rolling basis), plus we extended our book publishing program (having published 8 books already, with more coming up in our portfolio).
Our newest book titled: “Autism Spectrum Disorders: Neurofeedback, Neuromodulation and Sensory Integration Approaches” edited by Tato Sokhadze and Manuel Casanova is in press and features a cover by the famous autistic artist, Trent Altman. Previously published FNNR books such as “Doing Neurofeedback” and Alpha-Theta Neurofeedback in the 21st Century” continue to be bestsellers. Several more books and booklets are in preparation for publication.
In the last cycle, we awarded a mini-grant to the junior researcher Michele Roley-Roberts from Ohio State University (Columbus) for her excellent proposal on neurofeedback applications for adolescents with PTSD. The new mini-grant cycle is being announced with a deadline of January 30, 2019. This year we supported, with $100 travelships, 10 students who presented (or coauthored presentations) at the ISNR conference.
Among our other foundation efforts, are soliciting and reviewing nominations for BrainMaster’s Joe Kamiya First-Person Science award. In 2018, the winner of this award was Agnieszka Zuberer, a European researcher who now works in Boston. We also started fundraising for a new named grant – the Tom Budzynski award – to recognize his legacy, and we already have part of the funds for this purpose donated by the MindPlace company. Furthermore, we plan to establish a mini-grant for senior researchers (e.g., for those who need a pilot research grant to maintain adjunct status at their universities).
In our new version of the mini-grant contract we strongly encourage winners to publish in the NeuroRegulation journal. So far, our winners have published 4 papers and several abstracts in NeuroRegulation and in the Journal of Neurotherapy, done a book chapter, and published 4 articles in high impact journals. They were active at presenting their research at ISNR and AAPB meetings. This year one of our recent mini-grant winners – Ashlie Bell – had her results presented at the Glendale conference where she also received an award for her clinical research. Our board members were also recognized for their continuing efforts by several awards at the ISNR 2018 conference: the Ann-Marie and Joseph Horvat award for outstanding volunteer services (Tato Sokhadze) and the Joel Lubar award for the contribution to advancement of neurotherapy (Mark Trullinger).
Our silent auction was also very successful this year. We raised more funds this year than in the two previous years combined. For this, we are very grateful to all of our donors and bidders. We also appreciate the support of our efforts by the ISNR Board of Directors and value the contributions of our many supporters and donors. Thank you for continuing to support our mission to promote neurofeedback research. Visit our website www.thefnnr.org for more information about our activities.