Nordic MEG Hub: Collaboration of all Nordic magnetoencephalography infrastructures on education, management and dissemination (Nordic MEG Hub)
Main funder
Funder's project number: 97254
Funds granted by main funder (€)
- 83 040,00
Funding program
Project timetable
Project start date: 01/10/2020
Project end date: 30/09/2024
Summary
A well-functioning brain is crucial for the quality of life and human autonomy. Conversely, brain disorders cause not only large individual suffering but also large societal costs (in Europe alone, 800 billion Euros per year). To study brain functions in health and disease, researchers need a brain imaging method capable of capturing brain activity patterns at the best possible spatial and temporal resolution. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) has a unique capacity to do exactly this. With MEG, we can non-invasively record the tiny magnetic fields that are generated by neuronal activity in the brain. The unique benefit of MEG is that it can both localize such activity with good accuracy and track its dynamics at the millisecond level. Recordings are silent and comfortable, which makes them suitable to patients and healthy individuals across ages.
Nordic countries, Finland particularly, are pioneers in the development of MEG systems, new MEG sensor technologies, and in the development of clinical applications, such as in epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. MEG is, however, still a rare neuroimaging method, with less than 200 laboratories worldwide and only a handful of Nordic MEG facilities in Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. It is therefore very challenging to develop, maintain and share MEG specific expertise within and across MEG labs, which is needed both to reach and maintain an internationally leading position.
To address these challenges, we have formed a MEG Hub comprising all Nordic MEG Infrastructures. These laboratories have world-leading experts in applying and developing MEG and strategic support, but unfortunately scarce resources for promoting systematic cooperation. Yet, together these laboratories could favourably compete with the largest neuroimaging centres in the world. The Nordic MEG Hub possesses the most advanced technological solutions for MEG recordings and analysis: with complementary expertise in centres dedicated to cognitive neuroscience and clinical applications, we will have the potential to achieve groundbreaking scientific results.
The activities of the Hub are designed to i) distribute the specific expertise of one partner to the others, ii) establish standardized best practices for all steps of MEG research to enable seamless multi-centre studies, and iii) set up continued structures for co-operation among the partner institutes. The Nordic MEG hub would thus establish a world-leading Nordic research environment.
Nordic countries, Finland particularly, are pioneers in the development of MEG systems, new MEG sensor technologies, and in the development of clinical applications, such as in epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. MEG is, however, still a rare neuroimaging method, with less than 200 laboratories worldwide and only a handful of Nordic MEG facilities in Finland, Denmark, and Sweden. It is therefore very challenging to develop, maintain and share MEG specific expertise within and across MEG labs, which is needed both to reach and maintain an internationally leading position.
To address these challenges, we have formed a MEG Hub comprising all Nordic MEG Infrastructures. These laboratories have world-leading experts in applying and developing MEG and strategic support, but unfortunately scarce resources for promoting systematic cooperation. Yet, together these laboratories could favourably compete with the largest neuroimaging centres in the world. The Nordic MEG Hub possesses the most advanced technological solutions for MEG recordings and analysis: with complementary expertise in centres dedicated to cognitive neuroscience and clinical applications, we will have the potential to achieve groundbreaking scientific results.
The activities of the Hub are designed to i) distribute the specific expertise of one partner to the others, ii) establish standardized best practices for all steps of MEG research to enable seamless multi-centre studies, and iii) set up continued structures for co-operation among the partner institutes. The Nordic MEG hub would thus establish a world-leading Nordic research environment.
