At the IBRO Governing Council meeting, held
November 13, 2010, in San Diego, USA, IBRO President Carlos Belmonte and
Secretary-General Pierre Magistretti announced plans for the "IBRO
Inter-regional Activities Initiative."
"While several of IBRO’s regional committees have already been
working together to organize inter-regional schools, this new initiative
will aim to promote inter-regional activities from IBRO Central, with
the schools activity being most important," said Prof. Magistretti. "We
want to bring brilliant students together so that they can interact at a
global level and work collaboratively in the future."
Prof. Monica Di Luca, the former Chair of the IBRO Western Europe
Regional Committee, was appointed as the chair of this emerging
committee. In addition to facilitating inter-regional collaboration for
IBRO Schools, Prof. Di Luca will also oversee future Young Scientists
Visiting Programmes, organized around major neuroscience meetings, and
Brain Awareness Week funding throughout developing countries to promote
public awareness of neuroscience research.
Currently IBRO's educational programmes, as well as many of its
funding programmes, are facilitated through its six regions: Africa
(ARC), Asia-Pacific (APRC), Central & Eastern Europe (CEERC), Latin
America (LARC), Western Europe (WERC), and U.S./Canada (USCRC). This
structure has succeeded in giving neuroscientists in different parts of
the world a direct voice in defining their own needs and priorities in
research and science education. While many activities have been running
very efficiently within the regions, IBRO officers have been interested
in investigating ways in which IBRO could increase interactions between
various regions, to the benefit of the neuroscience community worldwide.
Already, several of IBRO’s regional committees have taken the
initiative to collaborate on the organization of schools. The 2009
Kemali-IBRO Mediterranean School of Neuroscience held in Naples, Italy,
comprised 26 students from 12 countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,
Egypt, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Italy,
France and Spain). This inter-regional school, which now will be held
every two years, involves three IBRO Regional Committees: ARC, CEERC and
WERC. In addition, the 23rd IBRO-UNESCO School of Neuroscience,
recently held in La Reunion Island, was a collaboration between ARC and
WERC, with participation from APRC.
In addition to support from IBRO Central, it is hoped that additional
funds for inter-regional activities could be found from within the IBRO
regions and also from outside sources, according to Prof. Magistretti.
“The idea here isn’t only about the scientific training, but to a
greater extent it is about bringing together the future leaders of
neuroscience regardless from where they come,” said Prof. Belmonte. “We
hope that 20 years from now, as a result of our efforts, they will still
be in contact as friends and collaborating with each other. This has
very favorable implications for not only the advancement of neuroscience
research, but also for world peace.”
“I really see this as the future of IBRO, and IBRO is the perfect organization to make this happen,” he added.
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