# ABDN — African Brain Data Network ## Overview The African Brain Data Network is a network of over 300 researchers, data scientists, policymakers, and funders across more than 20 African countries, working to make African brain data FAIR and to build the technical and institutional capacity needed to generate, share, and reuse it. It was co-founded by Damian Eke and Eberechi Wogu in response to a near-total absence of African population data in global neuroimaging repositories — a gap that limits both the generalisability of neuroscience findings and the relevance of brain research to African health challenges. ABDN is supported by the Kavli Foundation and operates in collaboration with the Neuroscience Society of Nigeria and the BRIDGE initiative. ## Activities ABDN runs the African Brain Data Science (ABDS) Academy, a two-week intensive training programme in neuroimaging data collection, processing, and FAIR data practices for African researchers. The network also works to address structural barriers to African brain data sharing, including data localisation policies, ethics review infrastructure gaps, and limited access to open-source tools and computing resources. ## Connections - Partners with: [[BRIDGE]] ## Resources - https://africanbraindatanetwork.com - https://africanbraindatanetwork.com/about-us - https://doi.org/10.3389/fninf.2025.1530445 (Wogu et al. 2025, Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, FAIR African brain data challenges) - https://www.kavlifoundation.org/news/expanding-mri-research-in-africa (Kavli Foundation feature, 2024)