As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I had an insightful follow-up phone conversation with Dania Jekel, Executive Director of AANE . We talked about a number of things but spent a good deal of time on the importance of building partnerships with other organizations and institutions in the community around us. One of the organizations she talked about is called the Simons Foundation . It sounded very interesting so I did a bit of time on the internet to learn more about them. Located in NYC, its focus is on supporting efforts in science. One of the divisions of the foundation is SFARI; Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative which was launched in 2003. They have awarded over 380 million in grants to more than 400 investigators in the research of autism. In 2013 they formed the Autism Brain Net which is bringing together programs across the country who are doing research on brain samples from individuals diagnosed with autism who have ...