The Albany Gazette - Alberta Launches $5M Fund for Women’s Neurology Research to Address Gender Gaps

The Government of Alberta has launched its inaugural "Closing the Gap" campaign, a new initiative designed to support sex-specific medical research and provide practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of ailments to ensure women receive appropriate treatment. The first round of funding totals $5 million and will focus primarily on women’s neurological health.

The funding targets conditions such as migraines, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as the cognitive symptoms associated with pregnancy, postpartum periods, and menopause. Post-secondary institutions, healthcare partners, and for-profit entities are eligible to apply. Each group must submit project proposals by December 2 to be considered for a share of $1 million allocated for projects lasting up to two years.

Justin Wright, Alberta’s minister of primary and preventative health services, stated that the government aims to turn promising ideas into better care for women across the province. "Women deserve health care that recognizes their unique needs and helps them get the answers and treatment they need," Wright said in a news release. "Alberta has exceptional researchers and health professionals working to make that possible."

Local experts have celebrated the announcement, viewing it as a positive step for women’s health while noting that the area deserves similar grants in the future. Signe Bray, associate professor in the University of Calgary’s radiology department and research director at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, applauded the funding. She noted that both existing initiatives and this new announcement reinforce the demand to expand neurological knowledge.

"I think it’s great, I think it’s an area that I see getting more attention as of late," Bray said.

Erin Brennand, an associate professor and department head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UCalgary’s Cumming School Medicine, shared similar sentiments. A urogynecologist by trade, Brennand expressed excitement about the province opening opportunities for women’s health-specific research in Alberta. While she admitted to feeling "a little bit jealous" that the initial target was specifically neurology, she remained hopeful that this marks the beginning of broader opportunities.

"Of course, I was a little bit jealous that it had a specific target of neurology, but I’m also very hopeful that this is just the beginning of opportunities for all that have dedicated their careers specifically to women," Brennand said.

The new funding builds upon two separate one-time $10 million grants awarded in May 2024 to the Calgary Health Foundation and the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation, which were directed toward research on conditions commonly reported by women. Despite these efforts, significant disparities remain. An October 2025 report found that over the last 15 years, only seven percent of nationally funded grants in Canada focused on female-specific health questions. In Alberta, that figure is just under four percent.

Bray and Brennand explained that these figures are critical because women were historically excluded from initial studies on a wide array of subjects. Consequently, today’s academics are tasked with playing catch-up. Bray noted that after new scientific discoveries, research often proceeds using animal models with a bias toward including only male animals, which disadvantages human women.

"Some of the knowledge gaps start quite early in the pipeline, and then kind of propagate forward," Bray said. She added that at the clinical level, treatments developed without extensive testing on women have sometimes ended up being harmful rather than helpful.

Brennand cited instances where certain medications functioned differently for women than men. In human studies, she explained, concerns about fluctuating hormones skewing results were often used as a reason to purposefully exclude women.

"The river runs very deep in terms of the lack of understanding of women’s health," Brennand said. "It starts very early in the discipline…there was a built-in assumption that scientific discovery related to the male model of health would equally apply to women."

To address these gaps, Brennand recommended allocating future funding to areas beyond neurology. She highlighted reproductive conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome, as well as midlife and senior women’s health more broadly. Specifically, she pointed to perimenopause and menopause, and their impact on chronic disease for women in the "second act" of their lives.

"Things like osteopenia and osteoporosis and associated morbidity and mortality from falls, as well as cardiovascular disease, and, of course, neurologic conditions," Brennand said.

The need for such research is illustrated by the experiences of Calgary residents like Lindsay Thomas, a 42-year-old who has suffered from migraines for more than 10 years. Thomas described the onset of her migraines as "quite debilitating," involving intense, long-lasting headaches, vertigo, and sometimes vomiting. Her symptoms were exacerbated by a car accident, and while medications and chiropractic therapy provided some relief, progress was interrupted when she entered perimenopause.

Thomas reported that hormonal changes have made it difficult to predict when a migraine might occur. Previously, she could anticipate attacks by monitoring temperature fluctuations; now, the onset is unpredictable. She described a recent experience where symptoms lasted all week, making work challenging due to irritability and an inability to focus on her surroundings because of the pain.

"I find that I’m a lot more easily irritated, just don’t have a lot of patience for things," Thomas said. "You’re not even aware because you’re so focused on the pain that your head is in, that you can’t even fathom what’s going on around you."

According to Migraine Canada, women are three times more likely than men to experience migraines, particularly those over 40. Thomas expressed interest in trying Botox, an approved preventive treatment for chronic migraines, but noted that the approval process is lengthy. She wished there were ways to fast-track steps and develop more migraine solutions generally.

Regarding the province’s new funding, Thomas remained skeptical until she saw tangible results. "I’ll believe it when I see it in action," she said, suggesting that awarded research groups should study women across various age groups to ensure comprehensive results.

"I think that they need to have a broad group of women, or, you know, just people in general to study migraines," Thomas said. "Kind of just get a range of what’s causing them, what treatments they’ve tried, and go from there…because the ones I’ve tried are not long-term."

(Y.Harris--TAG)