2017 was and will be a defining year for our non-profit. Boosted by the consolidation of our two sister organizations, the One Mind Institute and One Mind, we are now in the position to better aid the millions of people who are affected by brain illness and injury. Rather than focusing on individual brain illnesses as we did in the past, as one, we are now working to confirm and advance a collaborative-based research model that can be applied to any brain illness or injury.
In 2017, we made significant inroads in accomplishing this by actively supporting two best-in-class research collaborations that strive to bring better treatments to patients now. These collaborations; the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury (TRACK-TBI) study and the AURORA study on trauma, are both based on open-science and both collect their data following the same data standards, enabling the future opportunity to further analyze the overlapping co-morbidity of these conditions. Knowing that this model can be applied to other illnesses, in 2017 we also began our internal planning to create a similar donor-supported research collaboration that will focus on psychosis that we intend to announce and launch soon.
We also awarded two Rising Star Awards to two young up-and-coming researchers whose pivotal and innovative research looks to aid those with psychiatric illness.
On September 16th, we hosted the 23rd annual Music Festival for Brain Health that broke records both in the amount of money raised and supporters in attendance. Our two 2017 Rising Star Award winners both presented at the event, as did Joshua Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., a past Rising Star Award winner and current Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
New in 2017, we also hosted the inaugural One Mind Initiative at Work forum that brought together business leaders to focus on the development and implementation of a gold standard for workplace mental health and well-being. With the financial support from founding sponsor Janssen Research & Developmentt, LLC and our other supporting organizations, the 2017 One Mind Initiative at Work forum was a huge success, providing a solid foundation for the future advancement of this One Mind managed program. The next One Mind Initiative at Work forum will take place in Napa on September 12th and 13th, 2018.
A heartfelt thanks goes to you, our generous donors, foundations and corporations who helped us raise over $5.8 million in total direct fundraising during 2017. Your support continues to play a key role in both the research we help fund as well as the patient support we underwrite. We remain extremely motivated knowing that with your support, our efforts are making a difference and providing hope to the millions who are affected by brain illness or injury.