URGENT funding for SCI research is on the chopping block!

[waters3]

I am only assuming you all have heard of the organization U2FP. They have worked so hard to secure 6M in funding for SCI/TBI research in Minnesota. An email was sent to me alerting that the Governor of MN is proposing to cut this funding from the budget. Here is the email I received. Please call or email. At the bottom of this email is what I wrote feel free to copy with adding your own story. Thank you!

"Dear Anthony,

We and the SCI/TBI community in Minnesota need your help. Minnesota's Governor, Tim Walz, has introduced a preliminary budget that defunds the $6M Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Grant Program. It is one of many cuts he's proposed to account for other deficits in the state budget.

U2FP has been busy this past week organizing our communities and alerting our research and clinical partners to make the case for preserving this program. And we need your help!

Please call Senator Tomassoni, Rep. Connie Bernardy and Governor Tim Walz asking them to keep this critical program in place.

Governor Tim Waltz

Phone: 651-201-3400

Email : https://mn.gov/governor/contact/

Rep. Connie Bernardy

Phone: 651-296-5510

E-mail: rep.connie.bernardy@house.mn


Senator Tomassoni

Phone: 651-296-8017

Email : https://www.senate.mn/members/email-form/1064

When calling or emailing, make sure to address some of these talking points:

• Briefly share who you are and why you're calling or writing.
• Remind them that this work supports undergrad, graduate, medical and postdoctoral students entering the SCI field of study.
• Ask them to please not defund this critical program because it is working exactly as it was designed: accelerating scientific research to clinical treatments.
• Minnesota has gained national prominence in this area of research as a result of this program and become a model for similar funding programs in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Lastly, you can call from anywhere within or outside the United States.

We need voices from every area of the SCI Landscape: SCI community members, researchers, clinicians, advocates, and industry representatives.

So please call or send a message, whichever is easiest for you to do. Then share this message widely, urging your friends and colleagues to call or write.

Join us,

Matthew Rodreick, Executive Director
www.U2FP.org

Dear Governor Walz,

I am writing to you to ask that you please do not cut the SCI/TBI research grant program from the budget. Our son has a spinal cord injury we desperately need this type of research and the organization that secured this funding has worked so hard to achieve this goal. This funding not only helps people in MN but around the world! This work also supports undergrad, graduate, medical and postdoctoral students entering the SCI field of study. We need more of these. Minnesota has gained national prominence in this area of research as a result of this program and become a model for similar funding programs in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Please do not defund this critical program because it is working exactly as it was designed: accelerating scientific research to clinical treatments.

Thank you

[Jim]

Calls are needed now!!!!

https://u2fp.z2systems.com/np/client...201dm079999d13

From U2FP-

Our battle to preserve the Minnesota SCI/TBI Research Grant Program continues. And we need everyone from everywhere (any state or country) to raise your voice.

Please call Governor Tim Walz and Rep. Connie Bernardy today before 3pm central time. This is when the Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee is meeting. And if you want to go the extra mile, call all members on this Committee; you can find their numbers here.

3pm Central Time is when the Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee will be meeting to discuss our bill. They need to hear from everyone, everywhere, about the necessity of preserving this funding.