Why NeuroXTek?

Brain health and mental wellbeing are core societal and economic assets, especially in modern democratic welfare states.  Economic growth, societal resilience, workforce participation, educational attainment, and long-term sustainability increasingly depend on cognitive capacity, mental wellbeing, and brain health across the population.  This dependence is especially strong in modern democratic societies where an engaged and well-informed populace is required for stable governance, social cohesion, and good health as defined by the world health organization (WHO).  At the same time, rapid technological advancements place increasing emphasis on brain skills and health. This poses a challenge for modern welfare societies lest they leave individuals behind or widen inequalities.

The growing burdens of brain disease and disorders and poor mental health threaten our future.  Neurological disease and disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide.  They cost the EU ~800 billion Euros in 2010; more recent estimates put their global cost at ~$5 trillion annually.   The aging population and associated neurodegenerative diseases add to the costs, further widening the gap between healthcare resources and demand.  

In youth, mental health has declined for decades, and COVID-19 and current geopolitical events have further worsened the situation. Poor mental health manifests in consistently increasing rates of depression and self-reports of worry, anxiety, and related symptoms (especially among females).

More broadly speaking, even health care improvements have indirectly added to the societal burden of brain- and nervous system-related disabilities.  Such important improvements span from neonatal care and survival of complicated pregnancies to advances in our ability to treat previously deadly diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease (including heart attack and stroke) and many forms of cancer (including brain tumors .  These trends point towards an unsustainable healthcare system in the future and risks for economic sustainability in our modern society.

Despite centuries of study, major gaps remain in our understanding of the brain and nervous system.  How do consciousness and subjective experience emerge?  What is the neural basis of plasticity and how does it lead to memory formation, maintenance, recall, and forgetting? How, when, and why can brain health shift towards poor health, disorders and/or disease across the life-span?  How do brain-body interactions—such as the gut-brain axis and the neural regulation of stress—shape cognition, behavior, and physiological homeostasis? 

Ground-breaking neurotechnologies are vital to answering questions. From the discovery of neural oscillations with EEG to early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s with novel PET radiotracers, many groundbreaking advancements in our understanding of the brain in health and disease are tightly connected to neurotech R&D.  

The fields of neuroscience, neurophysiology, clinical neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, psychology, psychiatry, and physiotherapy are increasingly reliant on neurotech for understanding, influencing, repairing, and/or enhancing the activity of the brain and nervous system. In a broader perspective, healthcare supply can be boosted by neurotech via quality improvement, reduced workload, and increased effectiveness.  Healthcare demand can also be reduced, e.g., via earlier diagnosis  of brain disorders and disease, more effective interventions, personalized mental health promotion throughout the lifespan, and prevention of mental and neurological decline in during ageing.

The NeuroXTek cluster will lift the burdens of brain disorders and disease and elevate brain health and mental wellbeing with beyond state-of-the-art neurotechnologies.  Understanding brain disorders and diseases enables new treatment approaches while opening new prevention pathways.  In the long run, this understand → treat → prevent approach will lead to insights that will be translated into neurotechnologies for lifelong promotion of brain health and mental wellbeing.