Understanding how the brain works is arguably the largest intellectual challenge of the 21st century. This effort requires a variety of existing and future technologies targeted at fundamental neuroscience questions. The network of national laboratories,one of the largest investments in science by the federal government, already contain technologies that could make a significant impact on neuroscience research along with the capabilities to design and deploy at scale future technologies for brain investigation. This meeting of leading neuroscientists will identify the specific intellectual challenges that can be addressed in the coming decades with collaboration with the network of national laboratories.
Developing technologies to understand how the human brain works has emerged as a major international focus of the BRAIN initiative. It is also self-evident that the long-lasting success of the BRAIN initiative will depend on widespread access to the technological advancements, computational tools, and data-sets created by the initiative. However, there are no existing mechanisms for providing national access to the increasingly technologically and computationally oriented investigations of the brain. The PI proposes to organize a one-day meeting to bring together neuroscientists from the community, scientists from the National Laboratories, and private and public funding organizations to determine the utility of creating a National Brain Observatory. The goal of the meeting is to identifying key problem areas in neuroscience where technologies found at national labs can be used for the BRAIN initiative and develop a pipeline for future conversations and collaborations between scientists from the National Laboratories and the larger neuroscience community. Panels of neuroscientists with expertise in different experimental approaches will identify important long-term goals that could require the resources of the national lab system and would transform their respective fields and drive progress across neuroscience. In addition, many important questions in neuroscience cannot be pursued with current tools. Bringing together neuroscientists and national lab scientists should catalyze discussions that spur us towards transformative new methodologies.
