Pizza and Pitches: Chen Social

Pizza and Pitches!

Beyond the BRAIN Initiative*: open call for elevator pitches

This Chen Social is about dreaming up a shiny new thing to succeed the BRAIN Initiative, so we can all continue our favorite research projects. Imagine that you unexpectedly share the elevator with President Biden or your Congressional representative. You have 3 minutes to pitch him or her on a new federal initiative to sponsor brain research. What is your proposal? Go!

There will be an open microphone. Pitches are limited to 180 seconds. Optionally you can take questions for up to 120 seconds afterwards. What do you envision are some of the Big New Problems facing humanity in the future, that will require a deeper understanding of brain function to manage and address?  Humor and satire are allowed but creative ideas are even better; see if you can do both!

Complete the form in the following link to secure your slot by June 21:
https://forms.gle/XJAeXmSw77hcycRq7

Pie Life Pizza and drinks will be served.

*As has been widely reported, the BRAIN Initiative is slated for a 40% budget cut this year. Understandably, this has caused serious concern among neuroscientists (although the program will still receive over $400M in NIH funding). The BRAIN Initiative has been supported strongly by Congress for almost 10 years, since its founding in 2015 (see Jorgenson, L. A. et al. The BRAIN Initiative: developing technology to catalyze neuroscience discovery (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0164 ). Ten years is often the natural life span of such government initiatives (see the "Decade of the Brain" (1990-1999) and the "Human Brain Project" (2013-2023)).  After ten years it's often necessary to re-package and re-brand a research funding program, to capture the imagination of Congresspersons who may not have been in office at its inception, to allow support to continue in some form.