Researchers at FENS Forum meet EBRAINS during networking event

During the presentation “EBRAINS, Contributing to the future of Brain Science Research in Europe - A deep dive into our open science tools”, EBRAINS representatives gave an overview of the digital research infrastructure and concrete examples of what researchers can do with the open science tools offered.

“It is truly an open infrastructure”, emphasised Prof. Jan Bjaalie, EBRAINS Management Board member, Infrastructure. Over 10,000 users have signed up to an EBRAINS account, said Prof. Bjaalie, inviting the audience to do the same, and explore EBRAINS resources.

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FENS Forum 2024 starts in Vienna – check out EBRAINS activities during the conference

Wouter Klijn, from the EBRAINS Science and Support team, gave an overview of the EBRAINS Research Infrastructure, presenting EBRAINS tools - over 160 in total - and new workflows of the RI. To demonstrate what these tools can do for brain research, he presented two examples: the building of a cohort of virtual human brains to unravel relationships between structure and function, and the use of EBRAINS simulation tools to improve epilepsy care.

One of these new workflows is QUINT, to extract, quantify and analyse features from rodent histological images. Maja Puchades, researcher at the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences at the University of Oslo, gave an introduction to rodent atlasing tools available on EBRAINS and the QUINT Workflow.

Judith Kathrein, from the EBRAINS Education & Open Calls Team, Medical University Innsbruck, concluded the presentation showing the audience how they can start collaborating with EBRAINS, and presenting tutorials and teaching materials that are available for free in the platform. She invited researchers to contribute by integrating datasets and workflows into EBRAINS.

Researchers have the opportunity to collaborate via four Open Calls that are currently open for the integration of new data and workflows into EBRAINS. People interested in applying for the EBRAINS Open Calls can visit this page for more information, and attend an information webinar on 11 July, from 10:00-11:30 CEST.

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Collaborate and Create: EBRAINS Open Calls for Researchers

Prof. Philippe Vernier, Joint-CEO of EBRAINS, made the concluding remarks and invited the FENS Forum 2024 participants to exchange with EBRAINS members during a networking reception.

EBRAINS booth

Participants of the conference can learn more about EBRAINS, watch demonstrations of Open Science Tools, and find out how the EBRAINS digital infrastructure can advance neuroscience research at the EBRAINS booth 704A in the exhibition hall, open until Saturday, June 29.

Plenary lecture

On Friday, 28 June 2024, Prof. Maurizio Corbetta, Chair of Neurology in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Padua and leader of large European team in the EBRAINS 2.0 project that is working with human clinical maps and connectomes, will present the plenary lecture “Architecture and function of spontaneous brain activity: health and pathology”. In his talk, Prof. Corbetta will discuss the role of spontaneous brain activity in shaping the structural and functional organisation of the brain.