The emergence of neurodiplomacy

Abstract

Nearly 1 in 6 people suffer from neurological disorders. As large multinational and interdisciplinary scientific collaborations in neuroscience emerge, how do we ensure equitable voice in the development and access to these technologies? In this backstory, neurodiplomacy is proposed as a new field to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and scientific discovery through cooperation between governments, academics, nonprofit organizations, and entrepreneurs. Nearly 1 in 6 people suffer from neurological disorders. As large multinational and interdisciplinary scientific collaborations in neuroscience emerge, how do we ensure equitable voice in the development and access to these technologies? In this backstory, neurodiplomacy is proposed as a new field to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and scientific discovery through cooperation between governments, academics, nonprofit organizations, and entrepreneurs. ‘’ There is little overlap in training between disciplines: policymakers and diplomats are not usually trained in the core sciences. At the same time, scientists have no training in international affairs and global issues. So, it is very hard to understand each other when they are at the same table.’’‘’ I have focused on science education as a non-state form of diplomacy in Latin America. To this end, context dependent education is key to success’’‘’ In the eyes of the public, particularly in Latin America, it is hard to separate scientific advice to governments and science diplomacy from politics’’‘’ I believe the field will focus in five areas: neurorights, data governance, trade of neurotechnologies, education, and people-to-people exchange.’’ In the global arena, communities are represented by diplomatic missions in other countries and multinational organizations. Often, multinational interests take the form of complex science, technology, and innovation (STI) issues, requiring the formation of interdisciplinary teams including scientists, engineers, policy advisors, and diplomats. The field of science diplomacy was born at the intersection between STI and international relations to understand, advise, and advance these collaborations. In this Backstory, Dr. Mohammed Mostajo-Radji brings attention to Neurodiplomacy as an emerging branch of science diplomacy to study international collaborations regarding neuroscience, neurotechnologies, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Mostajo-Radji is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz and part of the Brainengineers group (https://braingeneers.ucsc.edu/). He leads an interdisciplinary team studying neuronal interactions during cortical development and creating Internet of Things-enabled technologies for experimental science education. What has led to the emergence of neurodiplomacy? Why do we need a cross-talk between governments, nonprofit organizations, academics, entrepreneurs, and the general public? Humans have always been fascinated by the brain. Even if you look at medical illustrations of ancient Greece, you will find attempts to map the brain. This fascination continues today. With the development of neurotechnologies and big data, new questions have emerged to tackle issues such as data governance of neuronal data and the representation of diverse groups in neuroscience discoveries. The reality is that to date, there is still a big disconnection between governments and academia, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit organizations performing work in neuroscience. This gap has started to close over the past decade with projects such as the BRAIN Initiative (Insel et al., 2013Insel T.R. Landis S.C. Collins F.S. The NIH BRAIN initiative.Science. 2013; 340: 687-688https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239276Crossref PubMed Scopus (224) Google Scholar). Yet, there is a lot of work to be done to ensure equity and inclusion, both in the scientific discovery as well as in the access to the technologies developed (Barber and Mostajo-Radji, 2020Barb