Supporting open sharing of FAIR Norwegian neuroscience data via the EBRAINS research infrastructure

The brain is the most complex structure we know, and intensive research efforts are invested to map brain structure and function, aiming to generate new knowledge that will allow us to better understand how the brain function. This knowledge and understanding may allow us to simulate brain functions and find treatments to diseases afflicting the brain. Most research results are communicated in research articles, while the underlying data often are difficult to compare across studies and mostly inaccessible to other researchers. The Human Brain Project was a large EU funded project that delivered the open research infrastructure EBRAINS, that gathers data, tools, and computing facilities for brain-related research, helping researchers to collect, organize, analyze, integrate, and share their research data. Data sharing via EBRAINS makes it possible to reuse data to verify findings, address new hypotheses, and to combine them with other data to generate new knowledge. Through this support project we have aided Norwegian neuroscientists to utilize EBRAINS for open sharing of their data. We have engaged with Norwegian research environments, arranged workshops and provided courses, training, and practical assistance with sharing and analysing data using resources offered via EBRAINS. These efforts have resulted in increased awareness about possibilities, identification of specific challenges related to sharing sensitive data, and several Norwegian datasets being available via the EBRAINS research infrastructure.

Through tailored and domain-specific guidance and training of Norwegian neuroscientists in the use of available tools and infrastructure, we have contributed to increase the number of Norwegian researchers who openly share their research data. The project has increased the awareness of the importance of sharing data and the available resources to manage and analyze data to facilitate data sharing. In the long term, we expect that increased awareness about resources offered through EBRAINS, and accumulated skills, knowledge and experiences among Norwegian researchers will improve how neuroscientific data are managed and organized and increase the amount of Norwegian neuroscience shared in accordance with the Research Council's guidelines.

Despite substantial research efforts, our understanding of the brain and its diseases is still limited. Acquiring data about the brain is a time consuming and complex process, and open sharing of data is now recognized as vital to preserve valuable data and to increase transparency in the research process. To facilitate this, the Human Brain Project (a FET Flagship project) has developed the EBRAINS infrastructure, enabling scientists to collect, analyze, share, and integrate brain data, and to perform modelling and simulation of brain function. However, the implementation of neuroinformatics tools in general and data sharing in particular is still limited among the Norwegian neuroscience community. The few laboratories that have shared their data via the EBRAINS infrastructure have depended on dedicated funding for curation scientists to aid in data organization. We here apply for supplementary funding to increase and strengthen the dissemination of data management practices and sharing of neuroscience data to Norwegian laboratories, which will increase the impact of the research infrastructure. The project will build on established expertise from the EBRAINS curation team at the University of Oslo, expand on the outreach and community engaging efforts of the High-Level Support Team of the Human Brain Project, and utilize synergies with established researcher education institutions.