Under the slogan ‘Connected Brains, Connected Europe’, the European University of Brain and Technology (NeurotechEU) held its twelfth General Assembly alongside the biannual meeting of the Alliance’s Board of Governors from 9 to 11 November. In an event that brought together more than 200 participants across Alliance staff and students, the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) was represented by the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Cooperation, Vicente Micol; the NeurotechEU Leader at the UMH and Director of the Institute of Neurosciences (UMH-CSIC), Juana Gallar; and the Director of the Service of International Relations and Cooperation, Inmaculada Blaya.

XII Asamblea General de NeurotechEU

The event commenced in Brussels with the “Connected Brains, Connected Europe” Forum, attended by Gallar and Blaya on behalf of the UMH. The forum aimed to discuss current and future advances within the neurotechnology ecosystem, the evolution of European R&D policies, and how public and private sector actors can collaborate to capitalise on emerging opportunities. Also in attendance were the Head of the VIDA Programme at the CSIC Delegation in Brussels, Santiago Lamas, and representatives from the Delegation of the Generalitat Valenciana in Brussels.

Inmaculada Blaya (1ª izq.), Juana Gallar (1ª dcha.) y representantes de la Delegación de la Comunitat Valenciana en Bruselas

Meanwhile, the General Assembly, held in Nijmegen (Netherlands), addressed several of the Alliance’s key strategic initiatives, including the new European Master in Neurotechnology, international mobility policies, and public engagement projects aimed at bringing neurotechnology closer to society. Attendees included the Director of the Area for International Promotion and Director of the Centre for Translational Research in Physiotherapy, María del Carmen Lillo; the Deputy Vice-Rector for Institutional Positioning and Rankings, José Manuel Blanes; and the Intellectual Property Officer from the Knowledge Transfer Office, Begoña García Jaén. Additionally, several UMH faculty members involved in designing teaching content and launching the upcoming European Master in Neurotechnology took part: Institute of Neurosciences researcher and Physiology lecturer Víctor Meseguer; neurology specialist and Medicine lecturer Ángel C. Pérez Sempere; and the Head of the Brain-Machine Interface Systems Lab (BMIs) at the Elche Engineering Research Institute, José María Azorín, who spoke on the round table “Translating science for society”.

The UMH delegation was completed by Julio Ramos Martínez, Officer at the Service of Innovation and Technological Planning; NeurotechEU project managers María José Such, quality management expert, and Sonia Martín; Júlia Santacreu, NeurotechEU Communications Officer at the UMH and member of the work package dedicated to interdisciplinary knowledge creation; Desirée Gracia, UMH representative on the NeurotechEU Student Council; and PhD candidates Gamil Hamam Marawi, Luis Martínez Rubio, and Lucas Sebastián Peris.

Delegación de la UMH en la XII Asamblea General de NeurotechEU

The General Assembly concluded with the final session and awards ceremony for the annual NeurotechEU Hackathon. PhD candidates María Climent and Ariel Expósito participated in this edition, which was themed ‘Wearable Neurotechnology: fNIRS and EEG’.

NeurotechEU is a European University co-funded by the European Commission working to create a higher education and research space focused on neurotechnology, aiming to provide solutions to brain and mental health challenges through affordable technologies. Alongside the UMH, the NeurotechEU alliance comprises eight other partner universities: Radboud University (Netherlands), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), University of Bonn (Germany), Boğaziçi University (Turkey), Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca (Romania), University of Lille (France), Reykjavík University (Iceland), and Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria). It also includes the University of Debrecen (Hungary), the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Lithuania), and Western University (Canada) as associate universities.