The Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research (LDF) – a department of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, the world's first anti-vivisection organisation – awards grants to scientists undertaking medical research which benefits humans, without the use of animals. Founded in 1974, the name of the Fund is in honour of the Battle of Britain's Air Chief Marshal the Lord Dowding, a past President of the National Anti-Vivisection Society. To date, the Fund has awarded grants approaching £2 million to researchers working in a wide range of research fields including microsurgery, toxicity testing of dental fillings, breast and lung cancer, product safety testing, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, cot deaths, cataracts, kidney research, cell culture, computer-aided drug design, biotechnology, brain damage and computer teaching packages which replace the use of animals in education of students at school and university level. LDF grant around £300,000 per year for projects which show that medical progress is possible without the use of animals. LDF recognises that modern research techniques offer superior replacements to animal procedures. The major advantage is that, without the use of animals, there are no problems of species differences; the results can be directly applied to the human condition. LDF therefore aims to: Support and fund better methods of scientific and medical research for testing products and curing disease which replace the use of animals. Fund areas of fundamental research which lead to the adoption of non-animal research methodology. Fund, promote and assist medical, surgical, and scientific research, learning, and educational training and processes for the purpose of replacing animals in education and training Promote and assist any research for the purpose of showing that animal research is harmful or unnecessary to humanity. The LDF publishes a magazine New Science, exploring the latest developments in the world of research without animals, as well as featuring reports on the research they fund. They are also a member of Focus on Alternatives, a coalition established in 1998 for organizations funding non-animal scientific and medical research to work together. Studying neurological disorders The LDF has committed funding until the end of the decade towards running costs of the functional Magnetic Resonance Images (fMRI) scanning facility at Aston University. The fMRI scanner is twice as powerful as those found in hospitals, so allows detailed study of the human brain. Whilst animal researchers study neurological disorders in primates, this facility shows that it is better to use non-invasive methods