Funding tinnitus research

[NicTinnitus]

Hopefully you're aware that the vision of the British Tinnitus Association is "a world where no one suffers from tinnitus."

Current treatment options, while they can improve quality of life and reduce tinnitus-associated psychological distress, leave many of you living with tinnitus dissatisfied. “We need a cure” is a comment we hear often. I've read it numerous times on this forum! We know that people with tinnitus want their tinnitus loudness reduced and many of you would prefer a drug based solution over other options.

So what are we doing about it?

Well, we're going to put our money where our mouth is, frankly. We've got two research funding programmes opening up - and the first opened this week. We're going to be awarding up to £10,000 over three years to small projects which meet our research priorities. Then later in the autumn, thanks to generous donors who left money in their Wills for tinnitus research, there will be up to £125,000 awarded for one or more large scale projects to hopefully lead us closer to a cure.

If you want to read more about the grants programmes, check out tinnitus.org.uk/funding-tin...

If know a tinnitus researcher or a health professional looking for funding, please tell them about the programme.

And if you are able to do so, a donation to our research appeal means that we can offer more grants to more people tinnitus.org.uk/appeal/tinn...

If you've got any comments about our grants programme, the tinnitus research we support, or tinnitus research in general, we'd love to hear them - comment here! David Stockdale, our chief executive, is really keen for the tinnitus community to get on board with us on this, and I know he's happy to answer your questions too.

Best wishes

Nic

(BTA Communications Manager)

[dsh2358]

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[ChooseYourUsername]

Great to learn about the work being done.

I have read the full version " why is their no cure for tinnitus " report in full and with a lot of interest. Lack of definitions and subtyping is cited within the report as a reason for lack of progress.

So if meaningful definitions and subtyping are so firmly needed then please consider funding that kind of research with these grants?

Best wishes

[ChooseYourUsername]

What research projects were chosen?

[NicTinnitus in reply to ChooseYourUsername]

We felt the projects submitted were not suitable for us to support in the small grants round. The large grants round is currently open for several more weeks.

[ChooseYourUsername in reply to NicTinnitus]

Thanks for your reply but that sounds like a bit of a shambles

[NicTinnitus in reply to ChooseYourUsername]

I'd say it's more of a disappointment, not a shambles.

Hopefully the researchers will have taken the feedback offered on board and will come back with stronger projects.

I'm sure we'd be criticised if we gave money to projects we weren't sure about. £10,000 takes a lot of work to raise from Tea for Tinnitus events, fun runs, cycles etc - we have to be respectful of the community's money.

Nic

[ChooseYourUsername in reply to NicTinnitus]

I feel it is is somewhat inappropriate to have promoted this specifically as research getting closer to a cure ( as the BTA state above ) only to find out 6 months later we are no further at all to a cure because nothing has been funded so far.

This was only discovered because the question was asked - No updates were offered .

According to the message above the large scale project was going to be announced last Autumn.

[Chilledartist in reply to NicTinnitus]

could you tell us what the projects were?

[NicTinnitus in reply to Chilledartist]

I'm sorry, but we can't give details.

Nic

[djv1985]

Does BTA have ambassadors? If not You should look into maybe asking a few famous faces who have it to be some and ask them to mention it whenever they blinking can. Get the attention on it. William Shatner used to be the American Tinnitus groups ambassador before stopping. Not sure if it costs money but having a famous face talk about it especially one who is loved by many would help get more attention and donations maybe. Just a thought.

[NicTinnitus in reply to djv1985]

Yes, we have a number of ambassadors and celebrity supporters, both of the BTA in general and the Plug'em project in particular. They have been very kind and helped us raise the profile of the BTA. However, people of the stature of William Shatner are incredibly busy people and often have numerous other charity commitments. But we persevere!

[djv1985 in reply to NicTinnitus]

Lol oh okay. Just didn’t know and Yh I’m sure Shatner would be a stretch lol. Thanks for the reply.

[Hidden]

Hello, l really hope you manage to spend all that money quick because you will need to get a move on. You might need to source another 10 times that amount too, because £125k is a beautiful contribution to science, but on the scale of things not a lot by itself.

Please don't look only for 1st class hons undergrads or even 2.1s, or whatever success a postgrad has had. Look primarily at the proposal itself. I know this sounds radical but we're desperate for a cure.

I have a 2.2 ("drinker's degree") in a life sciences subject. However, as a recent chronic sufferer, l really want to crack tinnitus. Sadly, l may never get the chance.

I hope you don't disburse £10k for 3-year projects where it's just questionnaires and long waits between the questionnaires too. I know science loves data and all data is good if the setup is sound. But l just don't think these questionnaire studies will cut it. For £10k that's apparently all you'll get, you're best bulk buying Nerds sweets, selling them to afficionadoes on eBay, then you can turn that £10k into £15k. Repeat until you have £50k and a stock of sweets for brain power. Then let's talk about cracking tinnitus.