Project owner
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Scientific project manager
Edvard I. Moser, NTNU
Administrative project manager
Bjarne Foss, NTNU
Coordinator for infrastructure at the Oslo node
Trygve Brauns Leergaard
Coordinator for infrastructure at the Bergen node
Clive Bramham and Espen Hartveit
Host institutions for the research infrastructure
NTNU, with Univ. of Bergen (UiB) and Univ. of Oslo (UiO) as partners
Governance model
An illustration of the governance model of Norbrain consisting of steering board, management group, scientific advisory board and five workpackages.
Steering Board
The NORBRAIN steering board is the highest decision body of the consortium. It consists of one representative from each partner at a strategic decision level (Deans of involved Faculties). The Board meets twice a year and is responsible for changes in investment and project strategy. The Board is used as a conflict solver in case of disagreements. It takes strategic decisions about national and international co-operations.
Management group
The Management Group (MG) is the executive unit of NORBRAIN. Edvard Moser is Scientific Director and Bjarne Foss is Administrative Director of NORBRAIN. He leads the MG and the management of the consortium. The MG consists of the local coordinator(s) of each infrastructure node (Moser, Leergaard, Bramham/Hartveit) and has bimonthly meetings. The MG runs the daily business of the infrastructure. It is responsible for implementing Board decisions and follows up progress and deliveries. WP leaders will be called in to MG meetings as needed.
Work packages
Work package (WP) leaders are responsible for progress and deliverables of their respective WPs. The WP leaders report to the Management Group, which in turn reports to the Steering Board.
Work Packages will be led by a WP leader. Key personnel, in addition to Moser and Foss, are:
- May-Britt Moser, NTNU (Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, 2014; Director of Centre for Neural Computation)
- Menno P Witter, NTNU (Coordinator Olav Thon Nordic research award 2016; Past chairman of the FENS Committee on Higher Education and Training, Director of Norwegian Research School for Neuroscience)
- Trygve Leergaard, UiO (Task leader, rodent brain atlasing and data curation, EU Human Brain Project)
- Clive Bramham, UiB (Head, Neuroscience Research Group; President, Norwegian Neuroscience Society; PI TOPPFORSK, EU JPND Project: Partner, KG Jebsen Center for Neuropsychiatry)
Scientific Advisory Board
The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) advises biannually regarding strategic development, implementation, upgrades and management of the infrastructure. Meetings will rotate between NORBRAIN nodes. The SAB consists of 4 of the world’s leading scientists in neuroscience and neuroscience technology, all with considerable experience in research management:
- Chairman: Tobias Bonhoeffer, Director at Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried; expert on 2P microscopy; Board of Governors of Wellcome Trust and SAB of Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- Erin Schuman, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt
- Valentina Emiliani, CNRS Research Director, Director of the Photonics Department and Head of the Wave front engineering microscopy group, Vision Institute France; expert on optical methods for circuit mapping
- Michael Hausser, University College London; expert on 2-photon microscopy, patch clamp recordings, Neuropixels probes and all-optical interrogation; Fellow of the Royal Society
User involvement
There will be held user meetings to obtain feedback from the broad spectrum of external and internal users. User satisfaction surveys will be conducted in addition.
