ERA-Net NEURON-QUEST Workshop ‘Open Science Support for funded Projects of JTC2024 – ‘Bidirectional Brain-Body Interactions’
On February 19th – 21st, 2025 the ERA-Net NEURON conducted in cooperation with the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) QUEST Center the Open Science workshop for the 14 funded projects of the Joint Transnational Call 2024, Bidirectional Brain-Body Interactions.
The program of the 2-day workshop comprised several key elements:
- An introduction to the ESFRI INFRAFRONTIER, the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA), and the German Mouse Clinic by Dr. Sabine Hölter, head of the Behavioural Unit at the German Mouse Clinic at Helmholtz Munich, Germany, because most of the funded projects involve animal as well as human studies.
- And hence, an interactive session on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research moderated by Dr. Sarah Weschke, teamleader PSE at BIH- QUEST, provided insights for the active involvement of patients and other relevant stakeholders in the research process.
- A presentation of NEURO- and Artifical Intelligence (AI)-Ethics, and data sharing in neuroscience by Professor Dr. Damian Okaibedi Eke, Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK. Since the European AI act 2024, research projects might be required to assess the risk categories when implementing tools like machine learning on (large) data sets.
It has been so beneficial for me both to listen to the presentations, and connect with other researchers, in addition to the discussions.
- A tutorial session on the creation of the Data Management Plan (DMP) by Dr. Marek Suchanek, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic for using the Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW), an open-source and collaborative platform for data management planning.
- Important core elements of the workshop were interactive sessions on experimental design with focus on internal, external and translational validity, and reliability provided by Dr. Natascha Drude, head of the Responsible PrecliniX Unit at BIH-QUEST, and Dr. Ulf Tölch, group leader of the Systemic Perspectives in Translational Biomedicine – Training & Quality in Research at BIH-QUEST.
I truly appreciate the opportunity, as such scientific meetings are not only valuable for advancing our projects but also for fostering connections among researchers from different fields. Despite our diverse backgrounds, the sessions created a great space to identify common challenges, share struggles, and discuss possible solutions in a collaborative and friendly environment.
The ERA-NET NEURON launches joint transnational calls (JTCs) for interdisciplinary research. On an annual basis, the ministries and funding organsations networking within NEURON launch JTCs in the field of disease-related neuroscience to invite translational multidisciplinary research consortia. In its biomedical JTCs NEURON addresses important topics in the areas of neuroscience, neurology, mental health and sensory disorders in calls whose topics usually cover various aspects of a research field and invite multidisciplinary projects.
I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for the event you organized last week. It was not only a great success but also an invaluable experience for me. The opportunity to engage with new ideas and meet so many interesting people has been truly enriching.
The workshop for funded projects is intended to help the new consortia in getting started with thebrand-new projects. Besides a rich resource hub at the NEURON webpage, the workshop addresses practical issues for the work in an international project. Not least, it provides an opportunity for networking among all funded projects.
This meeting expands my research network in the EU by allowing me to foresee possible interactions with other projects and consortia. Moreover, it gives me the opportunity to plan further strategic and methodological actions before the project starts.