Workshop on the Feasibility of a National Brain Observatory, 16 Oct 2015

理解大脑如何工作可以说是21世纪世纪最大的智力挑战。这项工作需要各种现有的和未来的技术针对基本的神经科学问题。国家实验室网络是联邦政府在科学方面最大的投资之一，它已经包含了可能对神经科学研究产生重大影响的技术，沿着的是设计和部署未来大脑研究技术的能力。这次会议的主要神经科学家将确定具体的智力挑战，可以在未来几十年内与国家实验室网络合作解决。开发技术，以了解人类大脑是如何工作的，已成为一个主要的国际重点的大脑倡议。同样不言而喻的是，BRAIN计划的长期成功将取决于广泛获得该计划所创造的技术进步、计算工具和数据集。然而，目前还没有任何机制为国家提供越来越多的以技术和计算为导向的大脑研究。PI建议组织一次为期一天的会议，召集来自社区的神经科学家，来自国家实验室的科学家，以及私人和公共资助组织，以确定创建国家大脑观测站的效用。会议的目标是确定神经科学中的关键问题领域，在这些领域中，国家实验室发现的技术可以用于BRAIN计划，并为国家实验室和更大的神经科学界的科学家之间的未来对话和合作开发管道。具有不同实验方法专业知识的神经科学家小组将确定重要的长期目标，这些目标可能需要国家实验室系统的资源，并将改变各自的领域，推动神经科学的进步。此外，神经科学中的许多重要问题无法用现有的工具来解决。将神经科学家和国家实验室的科学家聚集在一起，应该促进讨论，促使我们走向变革性的新方法。

Understanding how the brain works is arguably the largest intellectual challenge of the 21st century. This effort requires a variety of existing and future technologies targeted at fundamental neuroscience questions. The network of national laboratories,one of the largest investments in science by the federal government, already contain technologies that could make a significant impact on neuroscience research along with the capabilities to design and deploy at scale future technologies for brain investigation. This meeting of leading neuroscientists will identify the specific intellectual challenges that can be addressed in the coming decades with collaboration with the network of national laboratories.Developing technologies to understand how the human brain works has emerged as a major international focus of the BRAIN initiative. It is also self-evident that the long-lasting success of the BRAIN initiative will depend on widespread access to the technological advancements, computational tools, and data-sets created by the initiative. However, there are no existing mechanisms for providing national access to the increasingly technologically and computationally oriented investigations of the brain. The PI proposes to organize a one-day meeting to bring together neuroscientists from the community, scientists from the National Laboratories, and private and public funding organizations to determine the utility of creating a National Brain Observatory. The goal of the meeting is to identifying key problem areas in neuroscience where technologies found at national labs can be used for the BRAIN initiative and develop a pipeline for future conversations and collaborations between scientists from the National Laboratories and the larger neuroscience community. Panels of neuroscientists with expertise in different experimental approaches will identify important long-term goals that could require the resources of the national lab system and would transform their respective fields and drive progress across neuroscience. In addition, many important questions in neuroscience cannot be pursued with current tools. Bringing together neuroscientists and national lab scientists should catalyze discussions that spur us towards transformative new methodologies.