FAIR Brain Data Science Bootcamp 2026 Welcomes International Neuroscience Community to Stockholm

From 11–13 May, the FAIR Brain Data Science Bootcamp 2026 brought together 75 researchers and data scientists from across Europe at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. Participants travelled from Sweden, Germany, Iceland, Spain, the Netherlands, Romania, Turkey, Austria, and France to take part in three days of intensive training focused on FAIR and reproducible neuroscience.

Organized by INCF, led by SeRC, and delivered in collaboration with EBRAINS Sweden, the bootcamp was held as a satellite event of the NeurotechEU Innovation Summit, contributing to a week of activities dedicated to innovation, collaboration, and excellence in neuroscience and neurotechnology.

The bootcamp showcased a broad range of tools, services, and workflows available through the EBRAINS research infrastructure. The program combined expert presentations with hands-on workshops, providing participants with practical experience in brain atlasing, electrophysiology analysis, data sharing, and computational modeling.

The event opened with an introduction to FAIR neuroscience and the EBRAINS ecosystem, followed by sessions highlighting how researchers can share, discover, and reuse neuroscience data through interoperable infrastructures and community standards. Participants then joined specialized training tracks covering:

• Whole-brain mapping with the QUINT workflow
• Interactive exploration of multiscale brain atlases using siibra and Voluba
• Electrophysiology data management and analysis using Neo and Elephant
• FAIR data sharing through EBRAINS Data and Knowledge Services
• Translational and mechanistic whole-brain simulations using The Virtual Brain

Working directly with real datasets and pre-built Jupyter notebooks, attendees developed practical skills in reproducible workflows, atlas-based analysis, multimodal data integration, and computational neuroscience methods. Training sessions were designed to accommodate participants with varying levels of experience, from researchers new to programming to those seeking advanced, code-driven applications.

A particular strength of the bootcamp was the close interaction between participants and experts from leading European neuroscience institutions. The event concluded with opportunities for researchers to consult directly with EBRAINS specialists on data management, sharing strategies, and resources relevant to their own projects.

The strong international participation and enthusiastic engagement throughout the program underscored the growing demand for training that enables researchers to work with neuroscience data in ways that are FAIR, interoperable, and reproducible. By bringing together expertise from across Europe, the FAIR Brain Data Science Bootcamp 2026 helped strengthen the skills, networks, and collaborative foundations needed to advance open neuroscience.

INCF extends its thanks to all speakers, instructors, organizers, and participants for making the event a success and for contributing to the continued growth of the FAIR neuroscience community.