Our activities are guided by a carefully developed strategy:  The mission of determining the causes of MS is a complex, challenging objective, which won't be accomplished by luck or by accident.  We have therefore developed a research strategy, the Cure Map, to guide our activities.  The Cure Map takes into account what has already been learned about the causes of MS, and identifies where progress most needs to be made.  For example, the Cure Map revealed that a large-scale source of blood samples, data and infrastructure was necessary to determine the factors that cause MS.  This led us to establish the MS Repository, which has become an important resource for the scientific community.

We strive for greater collaboration within the scientific community:  No single individual or group working alone can determine the causes of MS; instead, it requires the combined efforts and ideas of talented people in many different fields.  Because there are barriers that discourage and prevent scientists from cooperating, it is therefore vital that we encourage greater collaboration and sharing.  Our MS Repository was built on a foundation of openness and collaboration:  this resource is open to all scientists, regardless of where they work, and all who access our Repository are in turn required to share their results with us and other researchers.  We also work to connect scientists to one another - informally through introductions as well as through formal meetings - so that they can share ideas and join forces.