The SfN Neuroscience Database Gateway (NDG) is a pilot project developed by the Brain Information Group (BIG). BIG, a working group chaired by Floyd Bloom, was formed by SfN’s Council during the presidency of Huda Akil with support from the Wadsworth Foundation. This working group was charged with evaluating the current status of neuroscience databases; assessing future directions of neuroscience data management, data sharing, and database interoperability; and promoting enhanced awareness of the potential for databases to benefit the neuroscience community.

The BIG project convened a group of neuroscientists and information specialists active in database development to survey existing neuroscience databases, their objectives, features, strengths, and limitations. Three meetings of the group were held in the summer and fall of 2003. The outcome of these meetings is summarized in Dr. Bloom’s White Paper (http://www.sfn.org/ndgwhitepaper), which identifies the needs of the neuroscience community for more sophisticated tools for creating brain databases and linking new and existing ones.

In the course of the BIG discussions, the utility of a centralized gateway for accessing neuroscience-related databases became apparent. A subgroup of the BIG (Luis Marenco, Gordon Shepherd, Maryann Martone, Dan Gardner, and David Van Essen) developed the Neuroscience Database Gateway as a pilot project that is currently housed in the SenseLab facility at Yale University.