Affinity Groups Call for Interest

We are currently seeking members interested in participating in an INS Affinity Group. The INS Affinity Groups provide an opportunity for members to come together to collaborate and engage around a specific topic.

Each Affinity Group can include many participants and will be co-led by two INS members. It is our intention that the co-leads for each group will include an early career professional and a more senior experienced professional to provide mentorship and guidance.

We are particularly interested to hear from members — both emerging and experienced — interested in leading an Affinity Group.

The aims of the Affinity Groups are to:

• Provide a platform for engagement with the broader membership focused around a particular topic
• Build international and interdisciplinary networks
• Tap into expert multidisciplinary scholarship
• Facilitate knowledge exchange/transfer between members with different expertise
• Form unique collaborations in cutting edge research
• Develop innovative research outputs and outreach activities
• Enrich the neuroethics research community
• Strengthen the INS through collaborative networks
• Engage postgraduate students and early career researchers interested in the affinity groups

Topic Areas

Topic areas for the Affinity Groups might include:

• Neural interfaces
• Artificial intelligence and consciousness
• Law, law performative, and legal matters
• Cognitive enhancement
• Diversity, equity and inclusion / Supporting underrepresented voices
• Cross-cultural collaboration
• Adoption of good practice in research
• Public communication and publishing (in partnership with Neuroethics Today)

This above list of prospective topics are a few that members have most commonly indicated that they are interested in engaging with colleagues through the Society. However, this is not an exhaustive list and we are keen to hear from you about other topics that you would be eager to collaborate on with your colleagues through an Affinity Group.

Group Activities

We expect that members of the Affinity Group will meet approximately 4 times each year in order to engage in a range of activities. Each Affinity Group will determine the activities that it will pursue — which will generally reflect the stage of development of the topic area.

Possible activities could include:

• Undertaking a new research project as a group
• Developing a written work (manuscript, policy document, or other work) that tackles an important issue in neuroethics
• Hosting outreach activities to foster broader debate among stakeholders
• Providing a space for members to get feedback about current “works in progress”
• Organize collaborative knowledge exchange events/seminars within and across affinity groups

Activities, achievements and outputs of the Affinity Groups will be promoted by the INS. There may be opportunities for Affinity Groups to propose and present at future INS meetings.

Expression of Interest

If you would like to get involved in INS Affinity Groups, fill out the expression of interest form online or answer the questions in the corresponding Word document (docx) and return to INS staff <[email protected]>. We encourage you to fill out the form by Tuesday, June 6.

Interest Form