• JDRF is the only major diabetes organisation focused exclusively on research.
• It is the number one nonprofit, non-governmental funder of diabetes research worldwide.
• Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with juvenile diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than US$800 million to diabetes research worldwide.
• In FY2004 JDRF will provide US$100 million to diabetes research, AUD$9 million of which will support Australian research.
• Through its research funding, JDRF has been instrumental in establishing a focus on the needs of all people with diabetes, which has helped set the world’s diabetes research agenda to find a cure.

• JDRF has three research goals: restoring normal blood sugar, preventing and reversing diabetes-related complications, and preventing diabetes and its recurrence.
• Through its unique peer scientific and lay review program, JDRF funds the most innovative, cutting-edge research worldwide. In FY2000, the Foundation awarded more than 380 research grants, and 150 fellowship and career development awards were granted to scientists in 17 countries throughout the world.
• JDRF structures its research program on a business-world model to ensure that resources are spent most effectively to accelerate progress towards finding a cure.
• In March 2000, JDRF’s Research Task Force II convened to review and update the Foundation’s research priority areas and to take advantage of opportunities presented by new advances in biomedical sciences. The new priority areas include genetics/genomics, preservation of beta cell mass, islet transplantation tolerance, stem cell therapy, cell therapy and beta cell development, vascular inflammation and complications, hypoglycemia and noninvasive glucose sensor.
• The Foundation creates multidisciplinary programs that bring together diabetes researchers from many institutions and such diverse disciplines as molecular biology and genetics, immunology, transplantation and vascular biology to find a cure for diabetes and its complications

• The Foundation leverages its research impact by stimulating increased research spending on the part of other public and private, national and international entities such as the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Westpac Foundation, Royal Australian College of Physicians, the Thyne Reid Charitable Foundation, the Channel 7 Telethon Trust and the Financial Markets Foundation for Children.
• JDRF collaborates with all diabetes Stakeholders including individuals with diabetes and their families, world-leading diabetes researchers and academic institutions, foundations, corporations, individual donors and volunteers, government agencies, and biotech/pharmaceutical companies.

JDRF, the world’s leading nonprofit, non-governmental funder of diabetes research, was founded in 1970 by the parents of children with juvenile diabetes - a disease which strikes children suddenly, makes them insulin dependent for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications. Our mission is constant: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research.

For more information call 1300 363 126.