Skip to main content
x

INCF Network in action

INCF Network in action

The INCF network serves as a forum for members to take stock of their efforts and resources to leverage and align these to maximize efficiency and increase the impact of their outputs through the implementation of standards and best practices, utilizing existing mechanisms where possible or creating new ones where necessary. The INCF network accomplishes this though the following types of collaborations:

 

Node - Node collaborations

Represent cross national node efforts to coordinate, develop, and train researchers on neuroscience standards, tools, and infrastructures by leveraging the expertise, experience, and resources of the participating national nodes.

Spike Sorting Evaluation Project (German Node, Bernstein Center Berlin, and  Norwegian Node)

Spike Sorting Evaluation Project (German Node, Bernstein Center Berlin, and Norwegian Node)

The platform provides benchmark datasets and automatically evaluates the sorting results uploaded by users who want to benchmark their spike sorting methods

Marmoset Brain Connectivity Atlas (Australian Node and Polish Node)

Marmoset Brain Connectivity Atlas (Australian Node and Polish Node)

The atlas provides a systematic, publicly available digital repository for data on the connections between different cortical areas in the marmoset brain. The atlas takes advantage of a large collection of materials obtain over two decades of research using fluorescent retrograde tracer injections in adult marmosets. Techniques that allow visualization of the data (positions of injection site and labelled neurons) obtained in different individual monkeys relative to the histology of the cortex have are available

NeuroImaging Tools and Resources Collaboratory (NITRC; USA Node and INCF Network)

NeuroImaging Tools and Resources Collaboratory (NITRC; USA Node and INCF Network)

A web-based resource that offers comprehensive information on an ever expanding scope of neuroinformatics software and data. NITRC provides access to software tools and resources, vocabularies, test data, and databases developed both by the INCF network and the neuroscience community-at-large

Intra-node collaborations

Represent national node efforts to coordinate/develop national neuroscience infrastructures, promote neuroinformatics within the national node, and train researchers on how neuroinformatics approaches and methods.

Neuroinformatics Platforms (Japan)

Neuroinformatics Platforms (Japan)

The Neuroinformatics platforms is a pan-Japanese effort, coordinated by the INCF Japan Node, that resulted in the development of 16 neuroinformatics platforms for the INCF network that are publicly available to the neuroscience community-at-large.

Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF; USA)

Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF; USA)

NIF is an initiative of the NIH Blueprint Consortium, which brings together 16 NIH Institutes, Centers and Offices that support neuroscience research into a collaborative framework to coordinate their ongoing efforts and to plan new cross-cutting initiatives. NIF maintains the largest searchable collection of neuroscience data, the largest catalog of biomedical resources, and the largest ontology for neuroscience on the web.

Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP; Canda)

Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP; Canda)

The Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP) aims to bring together many of the country’s leading scientists in basic and clinical neuroscience to form an interactive network of collaborations in brain research, interdisciplinary student training, international partnerships, clinical translation and open publishing.

Working Groups

Represents an example of how individuals or laboratories in one Node can collaborate with individuals or laboratories from multiple nodes with a similar interest to leverage expertise and resources to work towards developing a deliverable that is beyond the scope of a single individual or laboratory.

Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS; Canada, France, Germany, UK, USA)

Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS; Canada, France, Germany, UK, USA)

BIDS (Brain Imaging Data Structure) was developed to give the community a simple and easy to adopt way of organizing neuroimaging and behavioral data.

NeuroImaging Data Model (NIDM; Canda, France, UK, USA)

NeuroImaging Data Model (NIDM; Canda, France, UK, USA)

The NeuroImaging Data Model (NIDM) was created to expand upon the initial development of XCEDE, introducing a domain-specific extension of PROV using semantic web technologies and the resource description framework (RDF).

Neuroimaging Quality Control (niQC; Canada, USA)

Neuroimaging Quality Control (niQC; Canada, USA)

Neuroimaging Quality Control (niQC) working groups aims to develop standards and best practices for quality control of neuroimaging data, including standardized protocols, easy to use tools and comprehensive manuals

INCF network and large-scale brain project collaborations

Represents an example of a INCF network-wide collaboration with other large-scale brain projects. These collaborations are typically coordinated by the INCF Secretariat on behalf of the participating members of national nodes and/or working groups.

KnowledgeSpace

KnowledgeSpace

A joint development between HBP, INCF, and NIF. KnowledgeSpace aims to be a globally-used, community-based, data-driven encyclopedia for neuroscience that links brain research concepts to data, models, and the literature that support them. KnowledgeSpace is a framework that links HBP data and data from some of the world’s leading neuroscience repositories to general descriptions of neuroscience concepts found in wikipedia with more detailed content from NeuroLex. It then integrates the content from those two sources with the latest neuroscience citations found in PubMed.

TrainingSpace

TrainingSpace

An online hub that makes neuroscience educational materials more accessible to the global neuroscience community developed in collaboration with INCF, HBP, SfN, FENS, IBRO, IEEE Brain, BD2K, and iNeuro Initiative.

Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury (CENTER-TBI)

Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury (CENTER-TBI)

Project aims to better characterize TBI and identify the most effective clinical interventions, link patient profiles with effectiveness of treatments (toward “precision medicine”), and improve outcomes via comparative-effectiveness studies. The project has collected an unprecedented scale of data from 65 participating centers across 20 European countries, with data about 5400 patients being collected in the core study and 22760 in the Registry. INCF's role in the project has been to develop a data/informatics platform, internationalization of the Common Data Elements, implement appropriate standards developed by the INCF network, and facilitation of novel analytical methods.