The year 2020 continues to present demanding challenges for the global neuroscience community. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, violent socio-political unrest, economic and environmental crises and the damaging spread of misinformation and distrust of scientific knowledge around the world, have made our work more difficult but also more necessary than ever.
We must make our voices heard and take advantage of the many opportunities that still allow us to work together and strengthen our connections.
One of the primary actions that IBRO leadership has taken in the past few months is to virtually meet each week with our Regional Committees. It has been a great inspiration for me to listen to, and learn from, our regional representatives. Their advice and expertise help to focus funding and activities that meet the real needs of the regions. As we move toward the end of 2020, and into 2021, my fellow officers and I will continue these conversations and increase inclusive communication, engagement and transparency both internally and externally.
Hope and determination have certainly not diminished within our community during these bleak times. On the contrary, they have become more robust, innovative and resilient, and I have no doubt that they will continue to support and advance our efforts long into the future. Keep safe, inspired, and healthy everyone.
Tracy L. Bale
IBRO President
Ideally, the new Executive Director will have experience in leading a scientific organization, have knowledge of current trends and issues facing life sciences, and understand the legislative process and public policy. The qualified candidate will be sufficiently entrepreneurial to identify, evaluate, and seize upon various ideas to move IBRO development forward in a changing global environment. Excellent communication, strategic management, and operational skills are essential to this position. The Executive Director will work with the Officers, Executive Committee, and Governing Council to fulfill the organization’s mission, lead staff in the execution of these goals, while cultivating relationships with member organizations and external partners. The Executive Director must understand the needs of diverse and multidisciplinary audiences and possess a high-level of cultural competence.
Wondering how neuroscientists worldwide are experiencing these extraordinary conditions? Check out our IBRO COVID-19 Series, a collection of video interviews featuring personal perspectives from our community.
The results are confirmed for the 2020 regional committee member elections of our Asia-Pacific Regional Committee (APRC), Africa Regional Committee (ARC) and Latin America Regional Committee (LARC). The new and re-elected members are listed below. The IBRO Regional Committees are composed of elected voluntary leadership. They focus on supporting and promoting neuroscience based on specific regional needs and conditions.
APRC
Bronwyn Kivell, Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand)
Pike See Cheah, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) (Malaysia)
Tadashi Isa, Kyoto University (Japan)
Yuki Goda, RIKEN Center for Brain Science (Japan)
ARC
Amira Zaky, Alexandria University (Egypt)
Bambidele Victor Owoyele, University of Ilorin (Nigeria)
Esperance Kashala-Abotnes, University of Kinshasa (DR Congo)
Athanase Millogo, University of Ouagadougou, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkina Faso)
LARC
Adrian Palacios, Universidad de Valparaíso (Chile)
Ana Silva, Universidad de la República (Uruguay)
Carolina Escobar-Briones, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico)
Gabrielle Britton, INDICASAT-AIP (Panama)
Elaine Del-Bel, Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
On September 1st, 2019, representatives from countries of Latin America met in Montevideo to first talk about the creation of the LATBrain, an alliance among Latin American academic societies, institutions, research centers, and networks devoted to the advancement of the understanding of the brain.
They agreed to sign the Montevideo Declaration of Intent of creation of the LATBrain that received the support of FALAN, and several neuroscience societies, institutions, and centers from Latin America.
The LATBrain will be a hallmark to establish a resilient, collaborative enterprise for the development of Brain Sciences in Latin America and a great example of cooperation among the countries.
It will enable Latin American Neuroscience to be part of the global efforts to collaborate in the advancement of brain research, generate and share new knowledge, prevent/cure brain diseases, develop neurotechnologies, and help societies through finding solutions to biggest problems associated with brain science.
The Second LATBrain Symposium was on October 8th, during the Argentinian Society for Neuroscience Research meeting. During this event, representatives of several countries presented the state of the art Latin American Neuroscience, and the opportunities and potential that our countries have to support the LATBrain Initiative and join the global efforts to understand the brain.
We invite the Neuroscience community to join us to empower neuroscience in Latin America!
Elaine Del-Bel
President of FALAN, the Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Neuroscience Societies
“Asia-Pacific has a great opportunity to be the next generation of leaders … I wish to further enhance the neuroscience program to emphasize increased diversity.”
Incoming Chair of the IBRO Asia-Pacific Regional Committee (APRC), Prof. Pike See Cheah, from Malaysia explains why APRC work is so valuable, shares her vision for APRC and talks about neuroscience strengths and opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region.
This new study evaluates, for the first time in Latin America, gender inequities occurring in the careers of members of neuroscience societies in Latin American countries.
The report, entitled “Evaluation of gender inequities in Latin American neuroscience community”, was carried out by the IBRO Latin America Regional Committee (IBRO-LARC) and The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). With the input of more than 750 Latin American neuroscientists associated with IBRO-LARC from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay, this report sheds light on the development of their scientific careers in parallel with family life, their perceptions of obstacles to success, and their ideas to overcome inequalities.
Special Neuroscience issue on the neuroscience of energy balance and eating behavior
This special issue features reviews and original research manuscripts in diverse areas concerning the central control of metabolism and obesity. Topics covered include effects of maternal nutritional status on brain development, mechanistic studies of hormonal and nutrient effects on metabolism, central nutrient sensing, and sex differences in metabolic control.
This is a rapidly advancing field and what is presented here is just a taste of what is going on in this field. Furthermore, as the link between nutrition/metabolic status and physiology/pathophysiology including neurophysiology, becomes more evident this area of investigation will surely come even more into the limelight in upcoming years.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neuroscience/vol/447/suppl/C
The primary criterion for acceptance is that the work is original, scientifically and technically sound, and valuable to the advancement of neuroscience research. We will also consider for publication any article that is methodologically sound, including negative data. Replication studies and re-analysis of previous datasets, when justified with a scientifically sound rationale, are also welcomed. Come publish your research with us!
There has been much controversy surrounding Neuralink, Elon Musk’s latest project designing tools for communicating with the brain. We’ve asked Juan Lerma, Editor-in-Chief of our flagship journal Neuroscience, to comment on the latest Neuralink announcements.
Young IBRO is the global voice of early career neuroscientists around the world. In this new featurette series, Young IBRO highlights selected researchers for their exceptional work and commitment to neuroscience.
This episode focuses on Dr. Jelena Martinovic (Univerzitet u Beogradu) who assisted the national COVID-19 testing efforts in Serbia.
Open Grants: http://ibro.org/open-grants/
Annual Grants Calendar: https://ibro.org/ibro-grants-calendar/
General information about all grants: https://ibro.org/grants/
Ageing and Dementia Research Group, Sultan Qaboos University
ADRG, SQU, Oman and Atlantic Institute, to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing of dementia caregivers. We are conducting this survey to learn about the issues you face and how you are managing social distancing and changes to everyday life. You can offer invaluable insights into life before and during Covid-19 pandemic, including key challenges and coping strategies.
Please find the questionnaire link below with a general description of the survey.
The Canadian Association for Neuroscience wants to highlight the important neuroscience discoveries made in Canada and proposes a new platform to publicize and promote our trainee’s research. We aim to make this accessible and easy to do, from your home, office or lab. The research features are featured on the can-acn.org website and on our social media accounts.
Check out the videos here: https://can-acn.org/can-trainee-research-features/
Apply here: https://can-acn.org/can-video-research-spotlights/
ENND is now being hosted by the newly established Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology (I-GHHE) at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
We would like to announce that the FALAN committee organized a FALAN Networking website. The main objective of the site is to create a network of collaboration between these scientists. The website has the objective to bring together Latin American and Caribbean neuroscientists and broadcast their work. On this website all members of Latin American and Caribbean societies can include information on activities developed in each group, each laboratory, publications, main interests, available facilities, lines of research and several other information. It is in the implementation phase. The prognosis is that it will be in full operation as of next November with a scientific virtual event that we are preparing for its launch.
FENS history of neuroscience call for projects
The annual history of neuroscience call for online projects is now open!
This initiative aims to create a virtual public platform to document the history and development of neuroscience. The grants prioritise projects in which historic material such as films, photos, images or histological slides are presented on the web.
The best projects will be selected for support of up to EUR 1,500
Deadline for submission: 15 December 2020
German Neuroscience Society
MNS2021 aims to further scientific collaborations and friendships among Mediterranean students and scientists with international colleagues in the beautiful pearl of Adriatic Dubrovnik in early summer.
Malaysian Society of Neurosciences
Southern African Neuroscience Society
Submit an Abstract for SfN Global Connectome
Share your research at SfN Global Connectome: A Virtual Event, the Society for Neuroscience’s brand-new forum for facilitating scientific exchange, learning, and collaboration across the field. The event will take place January 11–13, 2021, with abstract submission opening November 2 and closing November 13. Sign up to receive updates on speakers, sessions, exhibits and many other opportunities to engage with the world’s largest neuroscience community.
