# Charities establish new fund for research into rare disease

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/06/28/charities-establish-new-fund-research-rare-disease/
- Published: 2012-06-28T08:58:30+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Children’s medical research charity Sparks, together with [Action for A-T](http://www.actionforAT.org)
and [The A-T Society](http://www.atsociety.org.uk), has established a new fund for
research into Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T).

A-T is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects around 20 children in
the UK each year. Most children with the condition are wheelchair-bound by the age
of 10 and few survive past their eighteenth birthday.

This is the first UK joint fund dedicated to A-T research. The first call for applications
for grants up to £90,000, that could lead to treatments and cures for Ataxia-telangiectasia,
was launched at the A-T Clinical Research Conference 2012 in Cambridge. The fund
is particularly keen to receive collaborative applications between UK institutions
and other international centres of excellence.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

The charity expects that grants will be awarded by the end of 2012.

William Davis, chief executive of The A-T Society, said: “Together we can make a
much bigger impact than we could working on our own. Collaboration is the only way
to make progress with a rare and complex condition such as A-T and our three organisations
are showing the way with this first UK joint fund dedicated to this research.”

www.sparks.org.uk/research/researchers/

 * **[The Wheel to launch daily deal fundraising tool for Irish charities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/04/08/wheel-launch-daily-deal-fundraising-tool-irish-charities/)**(
   8 April 2013)
 * **[CAF urges charities to pass the baton by sharing expertise](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/06/25/caf-urges-charities-to-pass-the-baton-by-sharing-expertise/)**(
   25 June 2013)
 * **[Sight charities announce fundraising collaboration](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/05/18/sight-charities-announce-fundraising-collaboration/)**(
   18 May 2016)