National Transport Insurance (NTI) has chosen to restore a 1946 Ford Jailbar truck for its annual fundraiser in support of motor neurone disease research.

The restored vehicle will be displayed in May at the Brisbane Truck Show and raffled off, with a winner drawn on the final day of the exhibition.

NTI has also announced that its inaugural research grant has been awarded to Associate Professor Trent Woodruff at the University of Queensland, who is undertaking a project to tame the immune response in motor neurone disease.

NTI has backed MND research in support of former CEO Wayne Patterson, who died last October after a three-year battle with the disease.