Teknologirådet

The report provides valuable insights from a cross-disciplinary group of leading researchers and stakeholders within brain-related disorders, with a focus on five main topics: 1) Legal, Ethical, and Societal Compliance, 2) Data Acquisition, 3) FAIR Data, 4) Models Needed for Patient Assessment, and 5) Innovation and Science Needs. The report offers a detailed roadmap to achieve the vision of improving the investigation of brain-related disorders. The results are based on careful deliberation between researchers, experts, and stakeholders following the EBRAINS CoCreate framework. EBRAINS CoCreate builds upon the method of Open Research Agenda Setting (ORAS), which recognises the benefits of engaging multiple actors in defining future research. The resulting research agendas include visions and actions that a variety of actors find important, thereby strengthening and legitimising the selection of research priorities. The EBRAINS CoCreate Improved Investigation of Brain-Related Disorders process comprised five workshop sessions arranged from February 2023 to March 2023, with the first and last workshops conducted online and the three-day workshop held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The report first takes the reader through a narrative to set the scene for the envisioned future. Thereafter, the roadmap with actions required to achieve the vision for improving the investigation of brain-related disorders is visualised and then elaborated upon with detailed descriptions of the actions. Finally, the report also highlights recommendations from the participants to demonstrate how EBRAINS can be a vital player in realising the roadmap and how the vision can be realised today.

<p>Brain research has in recent years indisputably entered a new epoch, driven by substantial methodological advances and digitally enabled data integration and modeling at multiple scales – from molecules to the whole system. Major advances are emerging at the intersection of neuroscience with technology and computing. This new science of the brain integrates high-quality basic research, systematic data integration across multiple scales, a new culture of large-scale collaboration and translation into applications. A systematic approach, as pioneered in Europe's Human Brain Project (HBP), will be essential in meeting the pressing medical and technological challenges of the coming decade. The aims of this paper are</p><ul><li>To develop a concept for the coming decade of digital brain research</li><li>To discuss it with the research community at large, with the aim of identifying points of convergence and common goals</li><li>To provide a scientific framework for current and future development of EBRAINS</li><li>To inform and engage stakeholders, funding organizations and research institutions regarding future digital brain research</li><li>To identify and address key ethical and societal issues</li></ul><p>While we do not claim that there is a 'one size fits all' approach to addressing these aspects, we are convinced that discussions around the theme of digital brain research will help drive progress in the broader field of neuroscience.</p><p><strong>As the final version 5 has now been published, comments on this manuscript are now closed. We thank everyone who made a valuable contribution to this paper.</strong></p><p>This manuscript has been developed in a participatory process. The work has been initiated by the Science and Infrastructure Board of the Human Brain Project (HBP), and the entire research community was invited to contribute to shaping the vision by submitting comments. </p><p>All submitted comments were considered and discussed. The final decision on whether edits or additions was made to each version of the manuscript based on an individual comment was made by the Science and Infrastructure Board (SIB) of the Human Brain Project (HBP).</p><p><strong>Supporters of the paper</strong>: Pietro Avanzini, Marc Beyer, Maria Del Vecchio, Jitka Annen, Maurizio Mattia, Steven Laureys, Rosanne Edelenbosch, Rafael Yuste, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Linda Richards, Hye Weon Jessica Kim, Chrysoula Samara, Luis Miguel González de la Garza, Nikoleta Petalidou, Vasudha Kulkarni, Cesar David Rincon, Isabella O'Shea, Munira Tamim Electricwala, Bernd Carsten Stahl, Bahar Hazal Yalcinkaya, Meysam Hashemi, Carola Sales Carbonell, Marcel Carrère, Anthony Randal McIntosh, Hiba Sheheitli, Abolfazl Ziaeemehr, Martin Breyton, Giovanna Ramos Queda, Anirudh NIhalani Vattikonda, Gyorgy Buzsaki, George Ogoh, William Knight, Torbjørn V Ness, Michiel van der Vlag, Marcello Massimini, Thomas Nowontny, Alex Upton, Yaseen Jakhura, Ahmet Nihat Simsek, Michael Hopkins, Addolorata Marasco, Shamim Patel, Jakub Fil, Diego Molinari, Susana Bueno, Lia Domide, Cosimo Lupo, Mu-ming Poo, George Paxinos, Huifang Wang.</p>

The framework created by RETHINK aims to support the improvement of the quality of science communication by: 1. Providing an overview of the science communication ecosystem<br> 2. Raising awareness of the challenges that this ecosystem poses, and<br> 3. Posing practice-oriented reflexive questions that can help address these challenges The framework can be used by anybody involved in science communication and is based on the project’s research into the digital communication landscape, sensemaking practices, and quality. The framework is layered and intended to be interactive and integrated on the RETHINK website, so that science communicators can click their way through it and seek the information that is relevant to them.

In this chapter, Nielsen et al. propose options for improving e-participation at the EU level without changing underlying legal frameworks. In response to the challenges to e-participation, which arise out of current institutional designs, the authors make creative use of the research results presented earlier in the book to suggest ‘low-hanging fruits’ for practical reform. The challenges addressed include the relative weakness of individual citizens’ participation compared to that of CSO’s, the weakness of the Parliament in the legislative process and the continued de-coupling of the EU policy process from the will of the European citizens. While the chapter proposes no easy fixes, it points to some obvious practical steps forward. To improve existing participation mechanisms, the authors recommend providing improved support to citizens using the ECI, investing in the back-office support needed for the EP Petitions Portal to realize its potential and improving the scalability of Your Voice in Europe through advanced data analysis. They also make four novel proposals, first among which is to experiment with participatory budgeting in relation to the Regional and Social Funds. The chapter ends with a plea for a long-term vision of a unified European participation structure to gather and harness the potentials of individual mechanisms.

A modern way of life needs a modern way of coaching. Despite the proliferation of ICT solutions for personalized health care, there is still no easy way to provide older adults with integrated coaching services. In this paper we introduce the concept of Council of Coaches — a radically new virtual coaching concept based on multiple autonomous, embodied virtual coaches, which form together a personal council that fulfills the needs of older adults in an integrated way. In this concept, coaching takes the form of an open dialog in which clients co-construct together with a selected number of coaches their own plans to go for a healthier lifestyle. Virtual coaches are presented to users by means of embodied conversational social characters. We discuss technical and social challenges on the path towards realizing the Council of Coaches concept, a radically new view of health coaching that involves the state of the art in human-computer interaction, natural dialogue, and argumentation technology.