Europe

European open neuroscience is shaped by a dense layer of interoperable research infrastructures, EU-level policy mandates, and a set of coordinated ERIC bodies covering genomics, imaging, clinical trials, and biobanking. The European ecosystem is one of the most institutionally structured in the world, with clear governance pathways from national nodes to pan-European bodies.

Open Science Policy

The EC Open Science Policy drives open science across Horizon Europe-funded research, with open access to publications and FAIR research data as mandatory requirements since 2021. The EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) provides the federated technical infrastructure for research data sharing across all European disciplines. cOAlition S coordinates open access mandates across European funders, requiring immediate open access under the Plan S framework. The EHDS (European Health Data Space) is the EU regulatory framework for primary and secondary use of health data, designating HL7 FHIR for EHR exchange and recommending OMOP CDM for secondary use. The UNESCO Open Science Recommendation provides the global normative framework to which European policy aligns.

Research Infrastructures (ERICs)

The core of European life sciences infrastructure is coordinated through the ESFRI Health and Food Research Infrastructure cluster, comprising five European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERICs), a legal framework established by the EU to enable pan-European research infrastructures with shared governance and funding:

• ELIXIR federates national bioinformatics nodes across 23 countries, with EMBL-EBI as the hub and national nodes including IFB (France) providing compute, training, and FAIR services.
• Euro-BioImaging federates advanced microscopy and bioimage analysis nodes, with the French node at France BioImaging.
• BBMRI-ERIC federates European biobanks and provides the Negotiator platform for data access.
• EATRIS federates translational research infrastructure including the French node NeurATRIS.
• ECRIN supports multinational clinical trial conduct through national partners including F-CRIN in France.

Data Platforms

EMBL-EBI operates several core European data archives: EGA for controlled-access human genomics, ENA for open-access sequence data, EVA for open-access variant data, IDR for reference bioimaging datasets, BioImage Archive for broad-intake biological image data, and EMPIAR for raw electron microscopy image data. Separately, OpenAIRE aggregates open access publications and datasets across the continent and operates Zenodo, the general-purpose open research repository. EBRAINS is the open neuroscience platform created by the Human Brain Project, hosting brain atlases, computational models, and neuroimaging and neurophysiology datasets. Public-nEUro is a GDPR-compliant European repository for human brain imaging data in BIDS format, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and hosted at the University of Copenhagen.

Clinical Research

CTIS is the EU Clinical Trials Information System, the mandatory registration and results reporting platform for all clinical trials in the EU under the Clinical Trials Regulation (EU 536/2014). ECRIN supports multinational trial conduct. BBMRI-ERIC facilitates cross-biobank research through its federated catalogue and access infrastructure.

Pan-European Alliances

CURE-ND links Paris Brain Institute, DZNE, Mission Lucidity, and UK DRI for joint neurodegenerative disease research. JPND coordinates EU Member States for transnational neurodegenerative disease research funding. EEG101 (COST Action CA24148) is a COST-funded European network launched in 2025 to standardise EEG methodology and build open-science infrastructure for EEG research across Europe and beyond.