On February 8th, 2018, the non-profit organization Meeting for Minds (M4M) will organize the event SYNERGIES in Lausanne. Representatives from EPFL, the Clinical Neuroscience Department of Bern University, and the Neuroscience Center Zurich will come together with people with a lived experience of mental illness (PLEX). This day should serve as a springboard for a perennial collaboration between PLEX community members and specific research groups within the context of their corresponding projects.
For M4M, its founders and PLEX, science is synonymous with hope. It is the hope that, through the dedication of scientists who have devoted their lives to a better understanding of the human brain, discoveries in neuroscience will most certainly improve the mental well-being of humanity, whether via improved treatments, therapies for the ailing or through the application of sophisticated preventative strategies. Bringing these two communities together in the context of the research environment may create opportunities for both to engage in a process of collaboration, aimed at responding to a number of essential scientific, ethical and psychosocial imperatives.
In 2012, Meeting for Minds began developing relations with brain research institutes from France (ICM), Israel (The Technion and Weizmann) and Australia (BMRI) with the express intent of forming working alliances between neuroscientists and PLEX. In 2014 M4M brought together researchers, clinicians and PLEX to share their experiences and knowledge, and in 2016, M4M began to explore the concept of cross-community collaborations involving research scientists and PLEX with the creation of its SYNERGIES program.
See also Meeting for Minds website