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Our community

Our Community

Our community is united by a shared commitment to advancing neuroscience through collaboration, inclusivity and excellence. We bring together neuroscientists from all backgrounds, sectors, disciplines, and countries to foster connections and share knowledge across the field.

A global community powered by local impact

Find your local community

Local Groups: Connecting neuroscience where it happens

Your BNA Local Group is your route to local BNA activity, so find and join yours now using the button on the left!

A Local Group is a geographically-based grassroots network of BNA members who build and participate in projects across local institutions and sectors to strengthen neuroscience in their area. Carrying out funded activities aligning with the BNA principles of Inform, Connect and Influence, our Local Groups ensure that the BNA remains responsive to the real-world needs and opportunities of neuroscientists on the ground, while also feeding into national and international priorities.

All Local Groups are composed of and run by their own local BNA members, and are headed by volunteer Local Group Representatives (LGRs) and Local Group Student Representatives (LGSRs) based in local institutions. Though Local Groups are usually named after a university geographically central to them, they are made up of neuroscientists working in across all sectors and thus aim to represent the full breadth of their local neuroscience community.

As a BNA member, your LGRs and LGSRs are your first point of contact – find their details on your Local Group's homepage (tap the button on the left to find your group). Their role is support you and other local members to come together and:

  • identify any unaddressed needs, gaps and issues felt widely among your local community, which may be affecting the success of neuroscience in the area,
  • develop a strategy for local BNA members to collectively address those needs and issues, and
  • carry out impactful interventions that – via the principles of inform, connect and influence – improve local neuroscience.

Local Groups of BNA members are able to each claim up to £1000 annually to support these activities, coordinated by their LGRs and LGSRs. A Local Group has full control over its projects; which are developed by them to meet a widely- and deeply-felt local need that its members have raised. When challenges go beyond a single area, groups can collaborate regionally or even escalate issues to the BNA Council for national action. The network ensures that local voices shape decisions at the highest level of the organisation.

 

United by neuroscience: a community across sectors and borders

The BNA is a vibrant, inclusive community of neuroscientists and allied professionals working together to advance understanding of the brain and nervous system. Neuroscience is the study of how the brain works – from molecules and cells to behaviour, cognition, and mental health – and it plays a vital role in science, medicine, technology, and society.

Our members include researchers, clinicians, students, industry professionals, and those in education and the charity sector, working across disciplines and sectors in the UK and around the world. We support everyone involved in neuroscience by promoting excellence in research, fostering career development, encouraging collaboration, and putting power directly into the hands of our diverse, global community.

Together, we connect local action with national and international impact – shaping the future of neuroscience through shared purpose and inclusive leadership.

 

I’m a psychiatrist and post-doctoral researcher. I spend my clinical time seeing older adults with the whole gamut of mental health problems. I’ve loved science since I was very young and feel so lucky to have been able to do research alongside my clinical training.

Lindsey Sinclair, Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry

As Research Communications Manager, I engage with researchers from diverse disciplines and helping them translate their work for a wider audience.

Dr Alex Collcutt

Research Communications Manager, UK Dementia Research Institute

I enjoy using my BNA membership to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration, expand my skill set and fully embrace translational neuroscience

Professor Alan Palmer

CEO of Elixa MediScience

Understanding how the brain develops can also help us learn about how it works later in life, and maybe how to help treat neurodegenerative disorders too!

Dr Laura Andreae, Reader in Developmental Neuroscience, King’s College London