Programme

Programme

Our programme comprises plenary talks, focussed symposia, contributed talks and posters, plus social events and plenty of time for networking.

Download the programme overview to see what's on and when.

Pre-conference Workshops

We are pleased to offer a choice of two workshops in advance of the conference.  The workshops are open to all attendees but priority will be given to students and trainees as places are limited.  If you would like to attend, please indicate your choice of workshop when you complete the registration form.

Accelerate your research with data management practices and AI.

This workshop provides a comprehensive overview of research data management best practices, focusing on the FAIR principles and their practical implementation as well as existing infrastructure resources and standards for Neurosciences. Participants will be introduced to metadata, ontologies, persistent identifiers, and data sharing strategies, while bridging these foundational practices with AI applications, including machine learning workflows and the effective use of LLMs such as RAG and graphRAG.

Workshop Leader: Yann Le Franc, e-Science Data Factory, France), Biswanath Dutta, ISI, India

Dealing with difficult scientific situations ethically

Our “moral compass” is already set in many ways.  However each situation we encounter tests the performance of this compass, and each set of interactions we have fine-tunes it.

The purpose of this workshop is to generate discussion so that we all become aware of the many slippery slopes that we encounter in a life of science, and so that we realize that a nuanced appreciation of all sides of the issue at hand is necessary so that we can deal with a situation ethically.

We will not be providing answers as much as generating discussion, and through discussion come to a collective awareness of how much these things bear thinking about.

Workshop Leader: Shubha Tole, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India

Cultural Programme

We are delighted to offer a very special cultural programme on 3 February 2027 showcasing a talented group of dancers and musicians. All attendees are invited and the programme will be followed by dinner.

A performance by Abhay Tole Trivedi with Shen, vocals by Swayam Nath, Shayan Sinha on the dotara, Vivek Mishra on the tabla, and team.

Design by Shen, Lights by Subodha Subramanya, Sound by Arnav Tiwari. 

‘still i whirl’

We are all movers, focused on what we are moving towards, and sometimes where we are moving from; but rarely how we are moving. Can the nature of movement itself encapsulate its purpose? How can we think of movement as a relationship with its cessation, stillness? In a fast-moving modern world, can we dare to be slow? Why do we move, and how is it an expression of our freedom? ‘still i whirl’ is a self-reflexive exploration, and simultaneously, a continuing surrender to the body’s potential and appetite for movement. Though we move differently, the whirl is a powerful, all-encompassing container: representing, at the fundamental level, atomic movement; the wrapping of tissues around our bones; varying psychosomatic states; individual and collective movement; and planets in orbit.

The kathak form lends itself to this exploration of circularity and subtlety: swirling pirouettes and small spirals of the wrists; flaring costumes and postures of pause; cyclic beat structures and the space of possibility between two beats. Through abhinay, an expressive emoting of feeling, we sing and dance the poetry of 12th-century Shaivite Basavanna in Kannada and 13th-century Sufi Mevlana Rumi in Persian. Their words are brought to life by an ensemble of vocalists and musicians, in a performance that draws on otherwise disparate forms: kathak, carnatic music, qawwali, and vacanas. We meditate on movement: they are two yet one, the stillness of whirl, and the whirl of stillness.

Photographs by Revati Kulkarni and Sara Pandey.
Art by Abhay Tole Trivedi.