Five years after a $15 million gift helped the University of Rhode Island establish the George and Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience, Brown University has corralled a $100 million gift to rename and re-establish the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science.
Both institutions are focused on studying the causes and identifying therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Together, Brown and URI are an example of the potential of establishing centers of excellence around specific industries or research topics, in this case brain science.
In a state the size of Rhode Island, it makes sense to focus our collective energy and resources into specific ideas. Rhode Island cannot compete in its entirety with the likes of California or Texas, never mind Massachusetts.
But there is no reason that it cannot carve out pieces of the future and develop them here to dynamic and self-sustaining economic sectors, ones that will over time attract other, related investments, and in the long run, prosperity and growth.