Home

The International Dimension

The International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) was established in 2005 through the Global Science Forum of the Organisation of Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) in response to the need for an international informatics network to tackle the challenge of understanding the human brain and its function in health and disease.  The complexity of the brain requires input from people across many different disciplines with many different methodologies to address brain function.  The major goal of the INCF is to harness the computational tools existing in the physical and information sciences that are needed to develop structured neuroscience databases and to store, analyse and model the immense quantity of neuroscience data available at many different levels of analysis.

The INCF addresses specific neuroinformatics issues that require international cooperation. One important mode of operation is through establishing focussed Programs.  Following an initial stage of consultation, workshops of experts establish the specific questions to be addressed, from which a set of actions follows. These are then initiated, or facilitated, as appropriate in cooperation with the National Nodes of the member countries. Currently, Programs exist for

  • Digital brain atlasing A program to enhance the interoperability, accessibility and sharing of spatial datasets in neuroscience through the creation of INCF-sponsored standards;
  • Ontologies of neural structures  A program to develop a common framework of ontologies to enable datasharing and the reuse of data within and across discplines;
  • Large-scale modelling A program to enable the integration of computer models of the brain developed by different research groups in order to help the efficient sharing and reuse of modelling software.  Special emphasis is placed on models requiring significant computing power.

Currently the INCF has fifteen members (Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA). The UK was heavily involved in the OECD-led discussions about international neuroinformatics and joined in August 2007.