WHAT IS CINET

CINET is the International Centre for Neuroscience and Ethics created by Fundación Tatiana. It was founded with the goal of fostering interaction between cutting-edge neuroscience, psychology, and ethical questions that it raises.

The interaction between the rest of the body, mental activity, and the individual’s social reality must all be explored because knowledge of the brain is inextricably linked to the totality of the human being in which it is found.

To acquire this integrated view of the neurological system, interdisciplinary researchers must be trained in the hope of eventually finding a solution.

What does CINET do?

CINET engages in the following activities to promote interdisciplinary dialogue between neuroscience and other disciplines:

It supports postdoctoral researchers’ international stays to further their expertise in domains outside than their predoctoral training, always focusing on the nervous system and applied ethical issues.

It funds interdisciplinary research projects involving several international institutions to explore various aspects of the brain-mind problem and related ethical issues.

It organises international scientific meetings (workshops) to discuss the present and future of neuroscience, its relations with other fields of knowledge, the ethical challenges it faces, and the various responses to the mind-brain problem.

It organises courses and seminars for an interdisciplinary academic audience ranging from undergraduate students to established scientists to study in depth various aspects of neurobiology, neuroscience, cognitive sciences, philosophical biology, history of science, or artificial intelligence, among others, with a focus on their applied ethical aspects.

It organises high-profile events to bring the latest advances in neuroscience, the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue in the field, and the ethical challenges involved to a wide audience.

MISSION

The mission of CINET is to promote dialogue, education and multidisciplinary research leading to a more accurate knowledge of how the human brain works. A systemic approach is taken to examine the global functioning of the brain, its connection with the rest of the body, with the life history of the individual, and with interpersonal relationships.

VISION

CINET aims to form a structure that complements the major international initiatives on the brain and, in dialogue with the humanities, raises non-reductionist interpretations of the brain-mind problem and the ethical issues arising from neuroscience. The goal, then, is to advance an anthropology that integrates the biological, subjective, and social components of the human being and that brings us closer to a fuller understanding of ourselves.

Objectives

CINET engages in the following activities to promote interdisciplinary dialogue between neuroscience and other disciplines:

To promote interdisciplinary training of researchers in the neurosciences and humanities, especially young people. But also for those established researchers who have recognised the need for dialogue to reframe the questions of their discipline.

To enrich the neuroethics committees of major international brain research projects, as well as research centres and hospitals, by leveraging the potential contribution of researchers with interdisciplinary training and a global vision of the human condition.

To enrich current neuroethics with non-neuroessentialist approaches to the mind-brain problem in order to arrive at a basic and applied neuroethics compatible with global visions of the human being.

To encourage neuroscience research proposals that emerge from interdisciplinary dialogue, and prioritise those that are risky but have the potential to make a real impact on the disciplines involved.

To empower society by engaging it in neuroscience and neuroethics that promote a global vision (biological, subjective, social) of the individual by illuminating the possibilities and limitations of cutting-edge neuroscience in understanding the human nervous system.