BRIDGE — Brain Research International Data Governance & Exchange
Overview
BRIDGE is a Wellcome Trust-funded initiative building responsible and sustainable governance frameworks for the cross-border sharing of brain and mental health research data. Launched in November 2023, it is a three-year project (2023–2026) led from the University of Texas at Austin and hosted on INCF infrastructure as a formal INCF Neuroscience Community member. Its long-term goal is to form a global consortium that will develop, operate, and maintain an International Data Governance Framework (IDGF): a set of principles and operational tools that help investigators, institutions, repositories, and funders navigate the varying legal, ethical, and technical landscapes that obstruct international data sharing in neuroscience. Partners include ZHAW (Switzerland), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), IDOR (Brazil), and the University of Oxford (UK).
Regional Activities
BRIDGE organises regional workshops to ensure the IDGF is built on diverse governance realities rather than Global North defaults. The first regional activity was a workshop in Lagos, Nigeria in December 2023. Subsequent activities include a Latin America workshop at IDOR Rio de Janeiro in June 2024, a second Africa Regional Workshop in Marrakesh, Morocco in April 2025, and a second Global Workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 2025. An ambassador programme brings in legal, technology, ethics, and lived-experience experts from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and beyond to embed diverse perspectives in the governance framework. The project is in active collaboration with the African Brain Data Network.
Connections
Resources
- https://bridge.incf.org
- https://braindatagovernance.org (alternate domain)
- https://bridge.incf.org/mission
- https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/bridge-brain-research-data.html (APS Observer, March 2024, overview)
- https://www.thetransmitter.org/data-sharing/sharing-africas-brain-data-qa-with-amadi-ihunwo/ (The Transmitter, July 2025, confirms three-year timeline)
- https://www.zhaw.ch/en/research/project/74112 (ZHAW project record, confirms November 2023 start)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2021.11.017 (Gau et al. 2021, Neuron, international data governance principles)