EBRAINS connects with the neuroscience community in Japan

In Osaka, SCA and HPCAsia jointly hosted SCA/HPCAsia 2026. The collaborative and collective strength from two of Asia’s established conferences created synergy among key HPC researchers, academics, technology specialists and industry leaders from across the region and beyond. Under the title “Everything with HPC - AI, Cloud, QC and the Future Society,” AI, cloud and QC communities along with supercomputing community were invited to get together to create the future.

Researchers from EBRAINS and the Brain/MINDS project teamed up to bring an interactive Birds of a Feather session to the SCA/HPCAsia conference. The session featured a panel discussion that explored "The Symbiosis of Brain Science and Computing: Spiking Neural Networks, Virtual Brain Twins, and Synthetic Biological Intelligence." The session was one of the most popular at the conference, welcoming over 40 attendees.

A few days later, from 4-5 February, the EBRAINS Workshop @ ATR took place in Kyoto. On the first day, diverse talks provided an overview of EBRAINS tools and services, with a focus on platform services; data curation; and co-design. Additionally, there was a talk dedicated to the Virtual Brain Twin project as an example of a scientific workflow that translates research into clinical applications.

The second day consisted of hands-on sessions related to data curation and co-design. Data curation ensures that high-quality, well-documented datasets are accessible for reuse, addressing challenges like inconsistent file formats or incomplete metadata that hinder collaborative research. Co-design leverages input from diverse stakeholders (including neuroscientists, clinicians, data scientists, and patients) to develop tools and workflows that are intuitive, inclusive, and aligned with real-world needs. The EBRAINS Workshop @ ATR was a success, welcoming over 50 attendees.

“These two events were fantastic opportunities to interact with the neuroscience community in Japan”, said Wouter Klijn, Coordinator of the EBRAINS Science Support Team. “We were very happy to see that there is great interest in the EBRAINS platform services, as well as our co-design approach.”