A national platform for open sharing of neuroscience research data

The project

The Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP) is a national platform for the open sharing of neuroscience research data. It brings together many of the country’s leading scientists in basic and clinical neuroscience to form an interactive network of collaborations in brain research, interdisciplinary partnership, clinical translation and Open Publishing. The goal of the platform is to improve the accessibility and re-usability of neuroscience data and, by increasing awareness of ongoing and past research efforts, it will reduce unnecessary duplication and overlap, resulting in a more efficient use of funding support. The CONP will also engage young investigators across the country in order to develop the next generation of “open” scientists.

The platform will provide a unified interface to the research community and will propel Canadian neuroscience research into a new era of open neuroscience research with the sharing of both data and methods, the creation of large-scale databases, the development of standards for sharing, the facilitation of advanced analytic strategies, the open dissemination to the global community of both neuroscience data and methods, and the establishment of training programs for the next generation of computational neuroscience researchers.

The CONP aims to remove the technical barriers to practicing open science and improve the accessibility and reusability of neuroscience research to accelerate the pace of discovery. Through the CONP, neuroscientists from across Canada will be able to pool data from diverse sources making this information easier to access and share. Access to the CONP and the data within it will help researchers find patterns that can potentially lead to breakthroughs to prevent, diagnose and treat neurological conditions. Ultimately, the CONP will help researchers collect, link and analyze data from across the country more easily, leading to better and faster outcomes for patients.

“The Government of Canada is committed to supporting Canadians with neurological conditions. The platform being created with this funding will be a central repository for innovative brain research. With access to such data, researchers will be better equipped to pursue medical breakthroughs that will improve the lives of Canadians living with brain diseases and disorders.”

– The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Health