Research Excellence
NeuroXTek aims to position Sweden as the global point-of-origin and reference environment for responsible and ethical neurotechnology via nationally coordinated research, validation, translation, and innovation that sets a high bar for ethics, governance, and societal impact through research and sustainable development.
Moonshots
The state-of-the-art and critical knowledge gaps therein are best understood under the lens of the emerging integrated neurotechnology field that connects mechanisms, measurement, interpretation, intervention, and real-world trajectories of brain health and disease (rather than via isolated field-specific advances). It is through that lens that the need for a strongly connected and convergent research cluster is most clear.
A core proposed mechanism in NeuroXTek’s emerging cluster structure is Moonshot Learning Research Project financing: targeted support for projects that make strategically relevant contributions to one or more NeuroXTek Moonshots while also generating reusable value for the NeuroXTek ecosystem.
Thematic Working Groups
To enable the three moonshots, eleven research thematic working groups provide a continuously evolving knowledge and expertise base as well as validated operating mechanisms through which the state-of-the-art in scientific, technical, clinical, and humanities and social science perspectives are integrated.
Science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) Themes
- Neuroscience Needs: Understanding brain health, disease mechanisms, and the key scientific challenges that motivate neurotechnology development and translation.
- Neuroimaging & Sensing Technologies: Development and integration of neuroimaging and sensing modalities, including MRI, MEG, fNIRS, ultrasound, electrophysiology, and advanced data acquisition systems for brain research and clinical application.
- Clinical Needs: Identification of clinical, patient, and care-system needs, including diagnostic gaps, treatment challenges, workflow requirements, and priorities for translation into healthcare.
- Quantum & Disruptive Technologies: Development and evaluation of quantum, photonic, and other emerging sensing, imaging, and platform technologies for future brain research and clinical application.
- Modeling, Compute, & AI: Computational neuroscience, multiscale modeling, digital twins, machine learning, simulation of brain systems, and brain-inspired computing for analysis, prediction, and neurotechnology.
- Neurointerfaces & Materials: Bioelectronics, implantable and wearable devices, materials science, neuromodulation, and neural interface technologies for sensing, stimulation, and precision intervention.
- Molecular, Spectroscopic & Biomarker Technologies: Biomarker discovery, spectroscopy, molecular sensing, molecular imaging, and translational neurobiology for earlier detection, mechanistic insight, and precision diagnosis.
Social Science and Humanities (SSH) Themes
- Philosophy of Mind, Cognition, & Human Understanding: Conceptual foundations of neurotechnology, including consciousness, cognition, agency, intention, selfhood, mental-state attribution, human-machine interaction, and the epistemic and interpretive limits of drawing conclusions about mind, behavior, and personhood from neural data.
- Ethics, Responsibility, & Societal Implications: Ethical analysis of neurotechnology, including autonomy, consent, mental privacy, fairness, accountability, human dignity, responsible research and innovation, and the individual and societal consequences of neurotechnology across healthcare, work, education, security, and everyday life.
- Law, Governance, Regulations, & Innovation Management: Governance and implementation of neurotechnology, including MDR, EU AI Act, data governance, quality and safety systems, liability, standards, IPR, reimbursement, procurement, workflow integration, user-centered innovation, entrepreneurship, and the legal and organizational conditions for responsible clinical and societal deployment.
- Policy, Inclusion, Societal Engagement, & Strategic Communication: Policy, inclusion, accessibility, stakeholder engagement, public trust, legitimacy, participation, strategic communication, and collaboration with healthcare, government, industry, civil society, medical specialty societies and patient communities to shape equitable, democratic, and socially sustainable neurotechnology development.