The Neuro Bureau supports ‘open neuroscience’, which basically encompasses the unrestricted sharing of:

1. •analytic tools
   

2. •computational resources
   

3. •data
   

4. •knowledge
   

The following efforts provide examples of how open neuroscience principles can be implemented in the neuroimaging community, and the value of grassroots initiatives: Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Center (NITRC), BrainMap.org, fMRIDC, 1000 Functional Connectomes Project (FCP) and its International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI), OpenfMRI.org, XNAT Central, and many others...

However, these endeavors are just the beginning. To realize the true potential of open neuroscience, we need to alter the culture of neuroscientific research — in particular, we need to foster a shift towards a focus on what can be gained communally through increased collaboration, and away from a focus on what can be gained or lost at the individual level. It is only through the shared efforts of the scientific community that open neuroscience can succeed. Toward this vision, The Neuro Bureau was formed with the following explicit goals:

1. 1)  To promote the sharing of resources at a global scale.
   

2. 2)  To facilitate open transfer of knowledge between institutions and disciplines, pre- and post-publication.
   

3. 3)  To promote communication and active socialization among members of the neuroscientific community.
   

4. 4)  To facilitate junior investigators in the development of international communications and collaboration.
   

5. 5)  To recruit the involvement of the broader scientific community in the advancement of neuroscience.
   

We aim to accomplish these goals through:

1. 1)  The instantiation of efforts that remove roadblocks that commonly arise in the processing of data. Whether it be large computational resources, analytically advanced algorithms or domain specific knowledge, The Neuro Bureau will actively encourage unrestricted sharing with the larger scientific community. The open release of the pre-processed ADHD-200 Global Competition data represents a Neuro Bureau initiative that is in line with this goal. 
   

2. 2)  The promotion of the active involvement and support by The Neuro Bureau community in the many unrestricted data-sharing and tool/resource-sharing initiatives specified above.
   

3. 3)  The creation of social events at international venues, for the explicit purpose of building relationships among members of the global imaging community. Additionally, it is our hope that The Neuro Bureau can come to form a community-specific incarnation of ‘couch surfing’.
   

4. 4)  By promoting open question-and-answer exchanges among community members through The Neuro Bureau forums, and broadcasting “breaking knowledge” via forum exchanges and social media (e.g., facebook, twitter, blogging).
   

5. 5)  By increasing the imaging community’s focus on the sharing of tools and media capable of innovating means of expression among neuroscientists.  As a first step, The Neuro Bureau will be launching an annual Brain-Art Competition.