Heart and Stroke Foundation's Novel and Exploratory Research Fund (Canada)

"Frederick Banting proved that sometimes you just have to follow your instincts. He had an idea about isolating part of the pancreas and, toiling in a Toronto lab in the long hot summer of 1921 with his assistant Charles Best, came up with insulin. Within a year of his discovery, diabetes ceased to be a death sentence for millions of people. The Heart and Stroke Foundation has always supported the kind of imaginative and innovative work that Banting and Best personified. That support has been formalized with the creation of the Foundation's Novel and Exploratory Research Fund (NERF) to help some of our most accomplished medical minds follow well-informed hunches. 'We know these researchers are brilliant because our review committees have rated them as leaders in their fields,' says Linda Piazza, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada director of research. 'The idea is to give them a chance to develop an idea that – if it works – could change the world.' The one-year award will allow innovators to test out bold new ideas. Three awards were granted this year" - HSF