Our Projects: Driving Change
The African Brain Data Network projects seeks to improve the landscape of brain research and innovation in Africa through responsible generation, application and use through a number of projects or workstreams.
Training
The ABDN Network seeks to ensure that a sufficient number of experts are trained in the use of novel technical tools to collect, process and apply brain datasets. From neuroimages to behavioural datasets, this network hopes to cover the length and breadth of Africa and lead the African neuroscience ecosystem into the era of big data analytics.
ABDN initiatives and activities so far have included the organisation of workshops and webinars to identify FAIR data challenges and possible solutions. Kavli Foundation has kindly provided funds to ABDN to organise the first ABDN Academy – two-week workshop for capacity development on data science and neuroimaging data.
Learn more about ABDN Academy
Learn more about ABDN Regional Workshops and Webinars.
Curricular Development
Integrating data science/data analytics as a taught module in relevant disciplines (such as Neuroscience and Psychology) is critical to a sustainable FAIR brain data ecosystem in Africa. ABDN is committed to building capacities for robust integration of data science into necessary courses and modules in academia.
Mentorship
ABDN works to connect active African researchers with mentors from different parts of the world in relation to FAIR brain data. This is needed for fostering capacity development and research/career guidance beyond the webinar Series and workshops.
Volunteer to become a mentor
Local Research Databases or Research Infrastructure
The ultimate goal of ABDN is to facilitate the establishment of relevant technical infrastructure for harmonised and responsible sharing of data. ABDN is seeking collaborations with funders, and organisations to establish culturally sensitive, ethically responsible, socially acceptable and legally compliant data repository in and for Africa. This will help in overcoming the emerging data protection ecosystem that often prevents some forms of data sharing.
Research Groups
ABDN research groups are engaged in brain data collection, curation, and analysis of Africans (both diseased and healthy) for clinical inquiries, population studies, and Neuroimaging analytics studies. Data being collected ranges from brain MRI data, Demographic data, EEG data, and other behavioral data.