Question: This is the answer that I received from the American Tinnitus Association(ATA). I know they mean well but to water down the issue by providing me with a amortization of the grant over three years........well it is still $102,000 plus dollars either way. I appreciate their intentions to find more relief. But for pete's sake, let the weight of the dollars go to "tip of the sword" not the handle. Maybe I am overeacting to this, but on the surface, it looks like the ATA has given up hope to a cure and have diverted to treatments. TRT has worked well me and other folks. Masking has worked well for other people too. Then there are those that nothing works. So do we need more protocols or do we need real cutting edge research? Money is the real snag, and it is OUR money, not the ATA's.

Answer: Thank you for your comments regarding our recent award of $102,580.00 over three years to Dr. Richard Tyler and the University of Iowa for his study "Music to treat tinnitus."

The American Tinnitus Association is committed to a cure for tinnitus. We believe that every project we fund will contribute to our understanding of tinnitus, and lead us closer to a cure. In a project such as this, it may be that any improvement to someone's experience of tinnitus would be due to the brain's reaction to treatment. A project therefore would help us define more useful avenues for future research. We also believe that it is important to research therapies that can help people with tinnitus now. Therefore, we do fund studies that focus on treatment protocols as well as those researching the mechanisms of tinnitus.

Our review process for grant funding is rigorous. Our 20-member Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) is made up of experts in the field of tinnitus, and is composed of both researchers and clinicians. The Committee reviews all proposals and makes recommendations to our Board of Directors on which proposals are the best in terms of relevance, innovation, research design and other factors. Any member of the SAC associated with an applicant's institution, or the applicant himself if a member of the SAC, is blinded to the review process so as to remove the possibility of influence. Recommendations for funding come from others in the scientific community, not the applicant.

Please note that "Music to treat tinnitus" is a three-year study; the annual award of $34,193.33 represents about 7% of our expected total yearly grants of $500,000. We have recently changed our policies to allow larger grant applications over longer periods of time (a maximum of $50,000 a year for up to two years, or a maximum of $100,000 a year for up to three years).