A neuroscience perspective on ethics dumping & animal data governance
Animal welfare regulation varies across the globe. While non-human primates (NHPs) are crucial in neuroscience research, their use is increasingly restricted in many countries. A recent paper in Frontiers in Neuroinformatics explores how to put an end to “ethics dumping” – where researchers move experiments to locations to circumvent animal welfare regulation – and argues…
EHDS: Meeting the Challenges of Responsible Data Governance
Data is a cornerstone for innovation and better health care. Responsible data governance is key to the public’s trust in science and the sustainability of research. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) is the European Commission’s response to the pressing need for a trustworthy health data infrastructure that reaches across member states. Needless to say,…
Human and Animal Data in EBRAINS
Brain research generates and applies big, multidimensional and multifunctional data with different levels of sensitivity. The usability, quality, integrity, availability and security of these data are critical to excellent neuroscience research and innovation. To ensure these essential qualities, as well as adherence to the FAIR data principles, EBRAINS has established a comprehensive framework and structure for…
Constructing an EU agency for AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) offers great promise in terms of societal and economic benefits. But it also raises numerous ethical and human rights concerns as the technology might inherit and exacerbate flaws that are already present in society. There have been numerous calls for the regulation and legislation of AI, most prominently the EU’s 2021 proposal…
Increasingly big data & the pressing need for international data governance of neuroscience
Understanding the brain requires great effort and the scale of neuroscience research projects is increasing to scale. This means crossing borders in big international research initiatives, and as a result being subject to national and international laws, regulations and policies in both data collection and transfer. While neuroscience data transcends borders, data governance typically stays…
Social, ethical & reflective work in the HBP: The publications list
The HBP is characterised by a profound and broad interdisciplinarity, and it is unique among the large international Brain Initiatives in having included social sciences and humanities in the core research from its very beginning, devoting approximately 5% of the budget to this end. We have compiled a list of all articles, books, and reports related…
Designing a responsible neuroscience research infrastructure
Over the past 8 years, the Human Brain Project (HBP) has tested the strengths and limitations of responsible research & innovation, also known as RRI. To mark the ten-year anniversary of RRI, a group of HBP researchers now share what can be learned from implementing this concept in a large multi-disciplinary research project. This includes…
How do we take responsibility for dual-use research?
We are more often than we think governed by old patterns of thought. As a philosopher, I find it fascinating to see how mental patterns capture us, how we get imprisoned in them, and how we can get out of them. With that in mind, I recently read a book chapter on something that is…
HBP opinion on trust and transparency in AI
Did you miss the launch of the Human Brain Project opinion on trust and transparency in artificial intelligence? Don’t worry! The full report with recommendations for the HBP is available for download. Only have ten minutes? We have recorded the presentation by Arleen Salles from a webinar organised together with the Horizon2020 SIENNA and SHERPA…
Beyond ‘good old CERN’: data and digital research infrastructures
In the popular imaginaries of Research Infrastructures, the ‘good old CERN’ is often seen as the prime example of European Research Infrastructures. Created in the post-World War II and emerging Cold War context of the 1950s, the European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) has developed in a highly-regarded success story of international cooperation, scientific discoveries…