Ambitious International Brain Initiative (IBI) launched to advance global neuroscience research

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Decod­ing the Brain Goes Glob­al With the Inter­na­tion­al Brain Ini­tia­tive (Sin­gu­lar­i­ty Hub):

“… it’s per­haps fit­ting that mankind is now unit­ing to under­stand the organ that fun­da­men­tal­ly makes us human: our brain. First envi­sioned in 2016 through a series of dis­cus­sions on the “grand chal­lenges” in neu­ro­science at Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty, the Inter­na­tion­al Brain Ini­tia­tive (IBI) “came out” this week in a for­ward-look­ing paper in Neu­ron.

Rather than each coun­try for­mu­lat­ing their own brain projects inde­pen­dent­ly, the project argues, it’s high time for the world to come togeth­er and share their find­ings, resources, and exper­tise across bor­ders. By unit­ing efforts, the IBI can help shape the future of neu­ro­science research at a glob­al scale—for pro­mot­ing brain and men­tal health, for stim­u­lat­ing inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion, for eth­i­cal neu­ro­science prac­tices, and for craft­ing future gen­er­a­tions of scientists…

The ini­tia­tive, at the time of writ­ing, includes Japan’s Brain/Minds, Aus­tralian Brain Alliance, the EU’s Human Brain Project (HBP), Cana­di­an Brain Research Strat­e­gy, the US’ BRAIN Ini­tia­tive (BRAINI), the Korea Brain Ini­tia­tive, and the Chi­na Brain Project … Is IBI’s vision naïve? Maybe. The most impact­ful tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments of our age—flight, nuclear weapons, con­quer­ing space, the Internet—have all stemmed from the minds of a rel­a­tive­ly small group of peo­ple work­ing under duress from oth­er peo­ple. But when it comes to tru­ly under­stand­ing the brain, the basis of who we are and what we believe, the root cause of divid­ed opin­ions and world­views, the organ that could one day be direct­ly manip­u­lat­ed and fun­da­men­tal­ly alter human­i­ty as a species—fighting for a glob­al con­sor­tium is the least we can do.”

The initiative:

Inter­na­tion­al Brain Ini­tia­tive: An Inno­v­a­tive Frame­work for Coor­di­nat­ed Glob­al Brain Research Efforts (Neu­ron)

• Descrip­tion: The Inter­na­tion­al Brain Ini­tia­tive (IBI) has been estab­lished to coor­di­nate efforts across exist­ing and emerg­ing nation­al and region­al brain ini­tia­tives. This Neu­roView describes how to be involved and the new oppor­tu­ni­ties for glob­al col­lab­o­ra­tion that are emerg­ing between sci­en­tists, sci­en­tif­ic soci­eties, fun­ders, indus­try, gov­ern­ment, and society.
• Vision: Cat­alyz­ing and advanc­ing neu­ro­science research through inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion and knowl­edge shar­ing, unit­ing diverse ambi­tions to expand sci­en­tif­ic pos­si­bil­i­ty, and dis­sem­i­nat­ing dis­cov­er­ies for the ben­e­fit of humanity.

News in context:

• The Neu­ro­Gen­er­a­tion and Humankind’s Quest to Enhance the Brain