Workshop: Present and Future Theoretical Frameworks in Neuroscience

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One important goal of the Brain initiative has been the development of novel neurotechnologies, which together with the technologies that have been developed in the recent past will provide vast streams of experimental data in the coming years. The potential flood of data and experimental advances makes the need to develop the appropriate theoretical frameworks that spam across scales, systems and species imperative in order to frame and ask key questions that advance our understanding of brain function in action and in context. This proposal requests funds for the organization of the workshop on Present and Future Theoretical Frameworks in Neuroscience. The workshop will take place in San Antonio, TX. An interactive format based on discussions and working groups during this activity will help identify key theoretical questions and develop experimental frameworks with a long-term vision to incorporate new tools, their capabilities and the data they will produce to advance neuroscience. This multi-day workshop will bring together a diverse group of scientists, a mix of young faculty and trainees (graduate students and postdocs) along with leading theoretical and experimental neuroscientists in a variety of fields to provide the necessary "cross-generational" perspective for the proposed activities to have an impact that persists in time. The discussions are expected to guide experimental and theoretical neuroscience research towards the understanding of brain function across interacting levels of organization (e.g.,sub-cellular, cellular, microcircuit, complex networks), scales (spatial, time) and range of species. The participation of a scientists from a broad variety of universities and research institutes across the nation is expected to provide the necessary geographic representation and diversity for the workshop to succeed in its goals and recruit the best people and ideas for future endeavors. A key dissemination platform will be the production of a podcast to ensure the ideas discussed at the workshop reach the broader community and bring the discussion to a more general level of participation. Efforts will be made to secure the participation of members of underrepresented minorities in neuroscience and for the broad dissemination of the workshop outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.