Please join us for two upcoming virtual meetings: the NIH BRAIN Initiative Neuroethics Working Group on Thursday, August 20, 2020 and the Multi-Council Working Group on Friday, August 21, 2020. Videocast will be available for the open sessions of both meetings.
We hope that everyone is remaining safe and healthy. As we continue to navigate the evolving coronavirus public health crisis, many of our upcoming meetings are now being held virtually.
Neuroethics Working Group meeting – Thursday, August 20, 2020
This Thursday, the BRAIN Neuroethics Working Group (NEWG) will be holding its tenth meeting. The NEWG helps ensure that neuroethics is fully integrated into the BRAIN Initiative. The NEWG is the only working group at NIH charged with anticipating and identifying ethical challenges, and so the August meeting will feature two timely and important discussions. In one session on neuroethics and racial inequities, Drs. Kafui Dzirasa (Duke University) and Francis Shen (University of Minnesota) will present recent papers to begin a conversation on how neuroethics can contribute to improving racial injustices and underserved populations. In a later session, a panel of BRAIN-funded investigators conducting human subjects research (Drs. Maria Franceschini (Harvard University), Leigh Hochberg (Brown University), Cynthia Kubu (Cleveland Clinic), and Sameer Shet (Baylor College of Medicine)) will provide first-hand perspectives on how the COVID pandemic has resulted in protocol changes and trade-offs for their research programs. In addition to these discussions, the open session will include an update from the NIH Office of Science Policy on the recently-convened NASEM Committee on the Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Issues Associated with Neural Chimeras and Organoids.
The open session will take place from approximately 12:00 PM – 3:10 PM Eastern Time and can be viewed via videocast. For more information, please view the meeting agenda(pdf, 138 KB).
Multi-Council Working Group meeting – Friday, August 21, 2020
This Friday, the NIH BRAIN Initiative Multi-Council Working Group (MCWG) will convene to discuss the current state of the BRAIN Initiative and its future. The August meeting will feature updates from BRAIN Initiative Director Dr. John Ngai, and a summary of the virtual 6th Annual BRAIN Initiative® Investigators Meeting from Dr. Samantha White. Dr. Ngai will also lead a discussion with the MCWG on the role of BRAIN in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. Finally, the open session will include one concept clearance on Phase III of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census.
The open session will take place from approximately 12:00 PM – 1:55 PM Eastern Time and can be viewed via videocast. For more information, please view the meeting agenda(pdf, 133 KB).
Meeting summaries and archived videocast of both meetings will be made available at a later date.