EBRAINS meets with Nordic neuroscience community at FENS Regional Meeting 2025

The FENS Regional Meeting 2025 was held in the University of Oslo (UiO) campus, arranged on 16-19 June by the Norwegian Society for Neuroscience, in collaboration with the other Nordic neuroscience societies(1). With more than 1000 participants, an ambitious and interesting programme, more than 500 posters presented, and beautiful surroundings, the meeting was very successful.

With an exhibition co-hosted by the Norwegian Brain Initiative (NORBRAIN), the INCF, and EBRAINS Norway, the EBRAINS Research Infrastructure was highly visible at the conference. The EBRAINS Data and Knowledge Team from UiO showcased available EBRAINS services, while new resources and developments were presented on posters. The importance of European collaboration on infrastructure and EBRAINS in particular was also emphasised in a Science Political session.

The EBRAINS services were explained in two technical symposia. In one, EBRAINS Management Board Member Jan G. Bjaalie and members of the EBRAINS Data & Knowledge team presented tools in FAIR data management and sharing.

In another symposium, Sharon Yates (UiO), Ingvild Bjerke (UiO / Penn State University) and Johanna Perens (Gubra, Denmark) presented advances in brain atlas development and atlas-based data analysis to over 100 attendees.

The EBRAINS atlases and QUINT workflow attracted considerable attention as user-friendly resources for a wide range of scientists.

“The FENS regional meeting has been successful”, says Trygve Leergaard, Leader of the Norwegian National Node of EBRAINS. “Over the coming years, our team will work to improve workflows and lower the threshold for sharing and analysing brain research data.”

The FENS Regional Meeting 2025 was a great opportunity for EBRAINS to interact with the Nordic neuroscience community. EBRAINS had a strong presence at the event, with a dedicated booth and two technical symposia. It received a growing recognition with multiple mentions in lectures and scientific posters showing results from analyses where EBRAINS tools were employed. Visitors to the booth showed a remarkable interest in the EBRAINS atlases and atlas-based tools - highly relevant for most types of experimental research - as well as in the software solutions offered from EBRAINS and the possibility to access high-performance computing (HPC) resources.

EBRAINS hopes to see you at the FENS Forum 2026 in Barcelona, Spain!