UK Neuroinformatics Node: Contributing to the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Edinburgh Research Office
Abstract
Understanding the brain is one of the great intellectual challenges of our time. It is of practical importance, as it will lay the foundations for treating many currently incurable diseases.
The brain comprises billions of nerve cells and we need to know how they are formed, how they interconnect and how they influence one another. Neuroscience yields vast quantities of data about all these aspects, such as how genes instruct the formation of nerve cells and how nerve cells intercommunicate by transmitting
electrical and chemical signals to one another. Furthermore, imaging studies reveal detailed pictures of which parts of the brain are active when we carry out specific tasks.
Neuroinformatics applies computer science, mathematics and physics to the problem of storing, retrieving and analysing this vast amount of data. To do this efficiently, common international standards for formats for neuroscience data tools need to be developed and agreed upon. Currently, much of this data is not maintained after the end of the project that generated it. Methods need to be developed to store and make accessible this data in the long term. For all of this to happen, international coordination is needed.
The INCF (International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility) is an international body which coordinates neuroinformatics worldwide. There are 14 member countries of the INCF, including the UK. It has a
program of activities each focussed on specific issues, such as how to share data or how to store data long term. To be a member of the INCF, a country must have a national neuroinformatics organisation, which acts as a Node of the INCF. This proposal is to fund the UK INCF Node.
We propose to carry out a set of activities to strengthen and develop UK neuroinformatics and to encourage involvement in the INCF. Amongst these activities are: developing a UK Neuroinformatics Node web site to facilitate collaboration between UK Node members; organising specialist workshops at which new ideas for using neuroinformatics methods for the benefit of neuroscience will be developed and which
can feed into activities at the INCF level; organising short training workshops; arranging meetings between individuals to learn new techniques; acting as a dating agency for people unaware of other expertises that would benefit them; making the field of neuroinformatics more widely known; and taking part in INCF specialist programs of work or proposing new international initiatives that can be taken up by the INCF.
The brain comprises billions of nerve cells and we need to know how they are formed, how they interconnect and how they influence one another. Neuroscience yields vast quantities of data about all these aspects, such as how genes instruct the formation of nerve cells and how nerve cells intercommunicate by transmitting
electrical and chemical signals to one another. Furthermore, imaging studies reveal detailed pictures of which parts of the brain are active when we carry out specific tasks.
Neuroinformatics applies computer science, mathematics and physics to the problem of storing, retrieving and analysing this vast amount of data. To do this efficiently, common international standards for formats for neuroscience data tools need to be developed and agreed upon. Currently, much of this data is not maintained after the end of the project that generated it. Methods need to be developed to store and make accessible this data in the long term. For all of this to happen, international coordination is needed.
The INCF (International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility) is an international body which coordinates neuroinformatics worldwide. There are 14 member countries of the INCF, including the UK. It has a
program of activities each focussed on specific issues, such as how to share data or how to store data long term. To be a member of the INCF, a country must have a national neuroinformatics organisation, which acts as a Node of the INCF. This proposal is to fund the UK INCF Node.
We propose to carry out a set of activities to strengthen and develop UK neuroinformatics and to encourage involvement in the INCF. Amongst these activities are: developing a UK Neuroinformatics Node web site to facilitate collaboration between UK Node members; organising specialist workshops at which new ideas for using neuroinformatics methods for the benefit of neuroscience will be developed and which
can feed into activities at the INCF level; organising short training workshops; arranging meetings between individuals to learn new techniques; acting as a dating agency for people unaware of other expertises that would benefit them; making the field of neuroinformatics more widely known; and taking part in INCF specialist programs of work or proposing new international initiatives that can be taken up by the INCF.
Technical Summary
To understand the brain requires interdisciplinary and worldwide cooperation. For example, there is a need to develop mechanisms for the sharing and integration of the many different types of neuroscientific data that are now being produced, in vast quantity, at many different levels of investigation. The International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF; www.incf.org) was formed in August 2005 under the auspices of the OECD to coordinate neuroinformatics world wide, the UK joining in August 2007. To be a member of INCF, member countries must have a national organisation, or Node. This proposal is to fund the UK Node of the INCF.
The proposal arises out of our experience in running the UK Neuroinformatics Network, which had the primary function of developing the UK neuroinformatics community. Here we propose a set of activities with the two goals of (1) developing and strengthening the UK neuroinformatics community and (2) developing the involvement of the UK in the INCF. Amongst the activities that we propose for achieving the first goal are: organisation of specialist workshops at which new
proposals related to neuroinformatics will be developed (a case in point is the development of the EPSRC funded project CARMEN for storage, analysis and modelling of electrophysiological data, which originated from a UK Neuroinformatics Network workshop); organisation
of short training workshops, arranging meetings between individuals to learn new techniques; acting as a forum for matching together individuals with complementary expertises; and making the field of neuroinformatics more widely known in the UK. To achieve the second goal, UK activities will be centred on topics that can feed in to the extensive programme of activities being developed by the INCF. For example, based on the significant activity in computational modelling in the UK, there is great interest in discussing the issues of sharing and sustainability of modelling code. This will contribute to the more general issue of sustainability and sharing of all types of neuroscience data being discussed by the INCF. Through the UK Node website and the series of UK events envisaged (including an annual
meeting at which the year s events will be reviewed), UK Node members will be encouraged to take part in existing INCF activities and to propose new international initiatives that can be taken up by the INCF.
The proposal arises out of our experience in running the UK Neuroinformatics Network, which had the primary function of developing the UK neuroinformatics community. Here we propose a set of activities with the two goals of (1) developing and strengthening the UK neuroinformatics community and (2) developing the involvement of the UK in the INCF. Amongst the activities that we propose for achieving the first goal are: organisation of specialist workshops at which new
proposals related to neuroinformatics will be developed (a case in point is the development of the EPSRC funded project CARMEN for storage, analysis and modelling of electrophysiological data, which originated from a UK Neuroinformatics Network workshop); organisation
of short training workshops, arranging meetings between individuals to learn new techniques; acting as a forum for matching together individuals with complementary expertises; and making the field of neuroinformatics more widely known in the UK. To achieve the second goal, UK activities will be centred on topics that can feed in to the extensive programme of activities being developed by the INCF. For example, based on the significant activity in computational modelling in the UK, there is great interest in discussing the issues of sharing and sustainability of modelling code. This will contribute to the more general issue of sustainability and sharing of all types of neuroscience data being discussed by the INCF. Through the UK Node website and the series of UK events envisaged (including an annual
meeting at which the year s events will be reviewed), UK Node members will be encouraged to take part in existing INCF activities and to propose new international initiatives that can be taken up by the INCF.
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| David Willshaw (Principal Investigator) |