We’re very pleased to bring you the 2024 edition of Why Research Matters, a collection of spinal cord research from around the world. It is a compilation of the top twelve entries from the Spinal Research Institute’s 2024 Spinal Cord Injury Research Writing Prize. Their authors are working in six different countries and the entries showcase a wide range of research in different national and cultural contexts.

For the first time since we began holding this competition five years ago, the judges’ scores were tied, so we have two winners of the Judges’ Choice Award! One discusses the impact of technology and specialty nurse counsellors on urological outcomes in SCI patients in India, and the other follows the development of a low-cost manual standing wheelchair.

The objective of this publication is to share and demystify the important work happening around the world in the field of spinal cord injury research. Researchers were asked to present their work for a non-scientific audience in an easy to understand and compelling manner, keeping in mind the question “Why does my research matter?”. The Writing Prize was open to all researchers in the field of spinal cord injury, whether their research was published or not.

We hope you enjoy reading this year’s edition!