International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility

{{Short description|International organization promoting open neuroscience standards and practices}} {{More footnotes|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox organization | name = International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility | native_name =  | native_name_lang =  | named_after = | image = File:International_Neuroinformatics_Coordinating_Facility_logo.png | image_size = 200px | image_alt = International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility logotype, abbreviation-only style. | caption = | map =  | map_size =  | map_alt = | map_caption = | map2 =  | map2_size = | map2_alt = | map2_caption = | abbreviation = INCF | predecessor = | merged_into =  | successor = | formation = {{start date and age|2005}}<ref name=INCF-history>{{cite web |title=History |website=KI.se |url=https://ki.se/en/neuro/incf-international-neuroinformatics-coordinating-facility |access-date=9 October 2019 }}</ref> | founder =  | founding_location = | extinction =   | merger =  | type =  | status =  | purpose =   | professional_title =  | headquarters = INCF Secretariat | location = Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden<ref name=INCF-contact>{{cite web |title=Contact |website=INCF |url=https://www.incf.org/contact |access-date=9 October 2019 }}</ref> | coordinates = {{coord|59|20|54.46|N|18|1|25.78|E}} | region_served =   | services = | membership =  | num_members_year =  | language =   | secretary_general =  | leader_title = | leader_name = | leader_title2 = Governing Board Chair | leader_name2 = Maryann Martone<ref name=INCF-contact/> | leader_title3 = | leader_name3 = | leader_title4 = | leader_name4 = | board_of_directors = | key_people = | main_organ =   | parent_organization =  | subsidiaries = | secessions = | affiliations = | budget = | budget_year = | num_staff =  | num_staff_year =  | num_volunteers =  | num_volunteers_year =  | slogan =  | website = {{url|incf.org}} | remarks = | former_name =  | footnotes = }}

The '''International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility''' ([https://www.incf.org/ INCF]) is an international non-profit organization with the mission<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.incf.org/about-incf|title=Mission {{!}} INCF|website=www.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2019-10-09}}</ref> to develop, evaluate, and endorse standards and best practices that embrace the principles of Open, FAIR,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples|title=The FAIR Data Principles|last=Hagstrom|first=Stephanie|date=2014-09-03|work=FORCE11|access-date=2017-12-04|language=en}}</ref> and Citable neuroscience. INCF also provides training on how standards and best practices facilitate reproducibility and enables the publishing of the entirety of research output, including data and code. INCF was established in 2005 by recommendations of the Global Science Forum working group of the OECD.<ref name="NPRC-about">{{cite web|url=http://nprc.incf.org/index.php/about/|title=About|website=Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium|access-date=19 September 2017}}</ref> The INCF is hosted by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.incf.org/contact|title=Location {{!}} INCF|website=www.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2019-10-09}}</ref> The INCF network comprises institutions, organizations, companies, and individuals active in neuroinformatics, neuroscience, data science, technology, and science policy and publishing. The Network is organized in governing bodies and working groups which coordinate various categories of global neuroinformatics activities that guide and oversee the development and endorsement of standards and best practices, as well as provide training on how standards and best practices facilitate reproducibility and enables the publishing of the entirety of research output, including data and code.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.incf.org/network|title=INCF Network {{!}} INCF|website=www.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2019-10-09}}</ref> The current Directors are Mathew Abrams and Helena Ledmyr,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.incf.org/team|title=Key personal {{!}} INCF|website=www.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2019-10-08}}</ref> and the Governing Board Chair is Maryann Martone

The INCF network aims<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.incf.org/about/what-we-do|title=What we do {{!}} INCF|website=www.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-04}}</ref> to promote the application of computational approaches to understanding the brain and to develop the infrastructure required to use computational methods to integrate and analyze diverse data across scales, techniques, and species to understand the brain and positively impact the health and well-being of society.

== Background == {{See also|Neuroinformatics}}

A key element to successfully understanding the nervous system is the integration of neuroscience with information sciences. The field that studies the nervous system, neuroscience, has responded to the fantastic challenge of understanding how our brain works with the use of the most sophisticated technologies, from studies on the genome to those on brain imaging of behaviour in humans and other species, under different functional states, and at all intervening analytical levels. This effort has resulted in large quantities of data, which are ever increasing at higher levels of complexity. The data produced are heterogeneous, coming from different levels of study and modalities of analysis. To rise to this challenge of integration, and to ensure efficient and maximum use of these data, it is now necessary to develop and create these shared resources: # neuroscience data and knowledge databases; # analytical and modelling tools; and # computational models. This challenge is being met through the merging of neurosciences with information science – the field of neuroinformatics.

== History == === Genesis === The recommendation to coordinate international efforts in the new field of neuroinformatics was first made in the report on bioinformatics elaborated under the aegis of the then OECD Megascience Forum in 1998.<ref name=OECD_Megascience-1999>{{cite report |author=Megascience Forum Working Group on Biological Informatics |date=January 1999 |title=Final Report |publisher=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |pages=3–4, 49–50, 70–72 |url=https://space.incf.org/index.php/s/GuZbEX4ZNlLiq9P |via=INCF ownCloud |access-date=19 September 2017 }}</ref> Following extensive discussions in the Neuroinformatics Working Group of the Global Science Forum chaired by Dr. Stephen H. Koslow, the proposal to create an International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Council and a system of grant funding for neuroinformatics research was then presented in 2002.<ref name=OECD_Global_Science-2002>{{cite report |author=Global Science Forum Neuroinformatics Working Group |date=June 2002 |title=Report on Neuroinformatics |publisher=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |pages=5, 11–15, 46 |url=https://space.incf.org/index.php/s/2fVbs4bMY71vZVU |via=ICNF ownCloud |access-date=19 September 2017 }}</ref> This project was endorsed by OECD science ministers at their meeting in January 2004. Sixteen countries (Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Victoria, Australia), as well as the European Commission, then elaborated the working documents that form the legal basis for the INCF and the Programme in International Neuroinformatics (PIN).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/globalscientificresearchprojectlaunchedtoimproveunderstandingofthehumanbrain.htm|title=Luanch of the project {{!}} INCF|website=www.OECD.org|language=en|access-date=2019-10-09}}</ref>

=== Establishment ===

The conditions laid out for the creation of the INCF<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.incf.org|title=Incf {{!}} INCF|website=www.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-04}}</ref> were met in July 2005, seven countries (the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States) having signed the Understanding document and pledged their financial contribution. A bid to host the INCF Secretariat was launched. Two proposals were received and, as instructed by the Governing Board, on November 3, the OECD<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oecd.org/|title=OECD.org - OECD|website=www.oecd.org|access-date=2017-12-04}}</ref> convened a panel of experts to review and rank the proposals. The panel assigned the higher ranking to the Swedish proposal, and this recommendation was endorsed by the INCF Governing Board when it met at OECD headquarters on November 28. Following extensive international discussions, the INCF was officially inaugurated in February 2007, with headquarters at the [https://ki.se/en/startpage Karolinska Institute] in Stockholm.

INCF promotes collaboration in neuroinformatics and reproducibility in brain research by

* providing coordination of global neuroscience infrastructure through the development and endorsement of standards and best practices in support of open and FAIR (Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable) neuroscience (FAIR data) <ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wilkinson M, Dumontier M, Aalbersberg I et al. | title = The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship | journal = Scientific Data | volume = 3 | issue = 160018 | date = March 2016 | page = 160018 | pmid = 26978244 | pmc = 4792175 | doi = 10.1038/sdata.2016.18 | bibcode = 2016NatSD...360018W }}</ref> * training researchers, administrators, and students on how neuroinformatics promotes rigor and reproducibility, open and FAIR science and publishing the entirety of their research output: narrative, data, and code <ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Breeze JL, Poline JB, Kennedy DN | title = Data sharing and publishing in the field of neuroimaging | journal = GigaScience | volume = 1 | issue = 9 | date = July 2012 | page = 9 | pmid = 23587272 | pmc = 3626511 | doi = 10.1186/2047-217x-1-9 | doi-access = free }}</ref> * encouraging neuroscience as discipline to move towards FORCE (FAIR, Open, Research-object based, and Citable Ecosystem) * promoting the advancement and continued development of neuroinformatics as a scientific discipline

=== Key Program deliverables=== include * Waxholm Space (WHS),<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Johnson GA, Badea A, Brandenburg J, Cofer G, Fubara B, Liu S, Nissanov J | title = Waxholm Space: An image-based reference for coordinating mouse brain research | journal = NeuroImage | volume = 53 | issue = 2 | date = Nov 2010 | pages = 365–372 | pmid = 20600960 | pmc = 2930145 | doi = 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.06.067 }}</ref> a coordinate-based reference space of the rodent brain * Scalable Brain Atlas,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scalablebrainatlas.incf.org/|title=Scalable Brain Atlas - Neuroanatomy at your fingertips|website=scalablebrainatlas.incf.org|access-date=2017-12-04}}</ref> a web-based display engine for brain atlases, imaging data, and topologies * NineML,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://incf.github.io/nineml-spec/|title=NineML|access-date=2017-12-04|language=en-US}}</ref> a general model description language * The Multi-Simulation Coordinator (MUSIC),<ref>{{Citation|title=MUSIC, the MUltiSimulation Coordinator|date=2017-11-14|url=https://github.com/INCF/MUSIC|publisher=International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF)|accessdate=2017-12-04}}</ref> which allows large-scale neuron simulators and other applications to communicate during runtime * The Neuroimaging Informatics Data Model (NI-DM),<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://nidm.nidash.org/|title=- Neuroimaging Data Model|access-date=2017-12-04}}</ref> a framework for the generation, storage, and query of metadata including provenance information * KnowledgeSpace,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://knowledge-space.org/|title=KnowledgeSpace - Home|website=knowledge-space.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-04}}</ref> a community-based encyclopaedia that links brain research concepts with data, models and literature from around the world * TrainingSpace,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://training.incf.org/|title=TrainingSpace - Home|website=training.incf.org|language=en|access-date=2018-04-24}}</ref> an online repository linking neuroinformatics training resources developed both by INCF, our partners, and existing community resources.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{Official website|https://www.incf.org/}} * Neuroinformatics Congress – [http://www.neuroinformatics2019.org/ 2019] (Warsaw, Poland); [http://www.neuroinformatics2018.org/ 2018] (Montreal, Canada); [http://www.neuroinformatics2017.org/ 2017]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2016.org/ 2016]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2015.org/ 2015]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2014.org/ 2014]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2013.org/ 2013]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2011.org/ 2012]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2011.org/ 2011]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2010.org/ 2010]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2009.org/ 2009]; [http://www.neuroinformatics2008.org/ 2008] * [http://nprc.incf.org/ Neuroscience Peer Review Consortium] * {{Cite journal |first = David |last = Van Essen |title = A Message from SfN President David Van Essen |publication = Neuroscience Quarterly |date = Spring 2007 |url = http://sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=neuroscienceQuarterly_07spring_message |url-status = dead |archive-date = 13 July 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070713090939/http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=neuroscienceQuarterly_07spring_message }}

Category:Neuroinformatics Category:Computational neuroscience Category:Neuroscience organizations