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NeuroCentury

strategy and analysis in areas of brain and mental health, brain capital as well as neurotechnology and ethics

OUR PROJECTS

BRAIN Positive Organization

Research Institute RISE, are pushing this insight forward, translating breakthroughs from neuroscience, psychology, climate science, and public health into the future of architecture and design.

Organizations often treat these dimensions as separate priorities. It is time to bring them under one umbrella.

Whether it concerns large corporations, small businesses, or schools and public institutions, there is a strong case for being “brain positive”. This means placing human cognition, adaptability, and good mental health the organizing logic of strategy.

It all starts with an environment that actively supports employees’ mental health. Beyond fostering an open culture with no taboos or stigma, organizations must proactively design work in ways that promote positive mental health outcomes. Accessible psychosocial support should be available any time.

Secondly, brain-positivity means a deliberate commitment to improving “brain skills”, core cognitive capacities such as memory, attention, and critical thinking, alongside creativity, emotional intelligence, and social skills. These are our most valuable assets in an age of rapid technological acceleration. Training and upskilling programs must be designed to cultivate and protect them.

Thirdly, there is a need to recalibrate toward true complementarity between humans and machines. In the race for AI adoption, blind delegation of tasks to algorithms must give way to a more intentional model where people and technology work in conjunction. There is growing evidence that this approach delivers better outcomes for performance, trust, and mental health alike.

Finally, the ecosystem and built environment are not neutral – they actively shape how we think, create, and feel. A growing body of research makes this clear: physical space can amplify or erode cognition, creativity, and wellbeing. Initiatives such as the Building Brains Coalition, launched in 2024 by HKS, and the research led by Swedish

Enter: The Brain+ Organization.

Brain Bonds

The Brain economy remains significantly underinvested globally, from insufficient funding for mental health services and neurological care to gaps in research and reskilling for the age of AI. At the same time, there is growing recognition of the strong return on investment in the brain space.

New concepts are being born, such as brain lens investing, which integrates brain capital into financial decision-making by translating scientific insights into investment criteria, metrics, and frameworks. In this way, financial returns can be aligned with long-term human and economic value.

In parallel, more sophisticated cost-benefit models are being developed, capturing the full economic burden of cognitive decline, including lost productivity, caregiver strain, and healthcare costs, while also highlighting the long-term savings potential of early intervention and prevention strategies.

To bridge the investment gap, a new class of financial instrument is needed. Just as green bonds mobilise capital for climate and environmental projects, there is a growing case for brain bonds, which can channel funding into brain health and brain skills. Their structure could mirror that of green bonds: asset-linked instruments backed by the issuer’s balance sheet. Like some green bonds, the brain bonds could benefit from tax incentives in the form of credits and exemptions to make them stand out as more attractive options than taxable bonds.

Since systemic investing is urgently needed across a variety of disciplines, financial innovation needs to come to the rescue. This project aims to develop the underlying methodology for such instruments, building on the principles of brain lens investing and advancing the case for brain bonds as a scalable solution.

360° Prevention Platform

There is a race against the clock to prevent demographic trends from having a devastating impact on societal wellbeing and public finances. Nowhere is this more evident than in neurological and mental disorders, where the burden is steadily increasing and set to grow at an accelerating pace.

At the same time, a growing body of evidence points both to the early onset of many neurological and mental conditions and to the effectiveness of prevention. In the case of dementia, this is reflected in a striking dynamic: while overall prevalence is rising as people live longer, age-specific incidence is declining in many high-income countries.

However, risk factors must be identified early, and interventions need to be comprehensive. Currently available tools provide only a partial view of disease progression. Advanced diagnostic modalities remain constrained by high operational costs, limited scalability, procedural invasiveness, and reliance on subjective visual interpretation. These limitations contribute to a fragmented, sequential diagnostic pathway that lacks the efficiency, integration, and proactivity required by contemporary preventive and precision healthcare.

This project, developed in collaboration with the Centre for Future Generations, aims to design a 360° Prevention Platform that embeds prevention into routine healthcare, moving beyond fragmented data collection toward integrated, longitudinal, and clinically meaningful systems.

The Platform would adopt a Neurotechnology-as-a-Service approach, identifying a critical missing layer in 360° prevention. Unlike conventional digital health tools, neurotechnology devices capture aspects of brain function that are otherwise difficult to observe, including attentional fluctuations, stress reactivity, cognitive workload, sleep architecture, emotional regulation, and neural signatures of dysfunction.

Consumer neurotechnology devices can therefore play a vital role in supporting ongoing cognitive well-being, self-regulation, and early awareness in both healthy and at-risk populations. These continuous, real-world signals help fill a critical gap in today’s prevention landscape, which remains dominated by behavioural, physiological, and self-reported data.

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AREAS OF INTEREST

The 21st century will be the century of the brain. “Neuroscience is experiencing a renaissance”, as The Economist said in September 2022, helped by enormous advances in technology, from imagining and sensors, all the way to AI. Progress towards unwrapping the mystery of the brain comes at a time when brain health is more valued than ever. People care deeply about staying cognitively active throughout their lives and into the late years. Given demographic trends and the prevalence of brain disorders in older population, the burden is expected to rise exponentially in the next two decades. Elsewhere, insights from neuroscience are making an impact in education, environment, food, or spatial planning. They create the basis for impactful solutions through their insights into learning, cognition, or emotions. Finally, brain-derived technologies are gaining significance and will leave a mark on the future of computing and AI.

The century of the brain is upon us !

how?

NeuroCentury is active at the intersection of science, policy, technology, and business.

It provides analytical insights and conceptual, strategic guidance for governments, international organisations and companies.

It offers business development support and tailor-made market positioning advice.

It aims at impact and engages in public policy advocacy in Europe and globally.

ETHICS

Given how close neuroscience and neurotechnology come to the essence of what it means to be human, strong ethical norms must be a precondition of progress in brain science and brain medicine. Implementation of the principles of ethics by design requires joint effort of ethicists, philosophers, and neuroscientists,

working with patients, their communities and other interest groups.

NeuroCentury designs governance frameworks for neuroscience and neurotechnology projects.

It is engaged in the elaboration of public policy approaches to human-centric technology.

Neurotechnology

Named one of the ten most promising emerging technologies by the OECD, neurotechnology is booming, helping paralysed people to walk again and offering hope to visually impaired.

Neurotechnology can provide therapeutic solutions where traditional approaches fail. Contrary to pharmaceuticals, which have to cross multiple tissue barriers to act on their target, neurotechnology forms a direct link. NeuroCentury provides strategy and business development support to neurotechnology companies. It also contributes to the building of an inclusive neurotechnology medicine platform which allows for mutual synergies in bringing research results to the market.

Brain Capital

In the 21st century, cognitive skills and abilities are essential for the accomplishment of socio-economic objectives. Therefore, building brain capital is fundamental for meeting modern societal challenges and driving innovation.

NeuroCentury is actively engaged in designing neuroscience-inspired public policies, including in the fields of education, environment, climate and food.

MENTAL HEALTH

Seen as our ability to cope with everyday pressures, realize our potential and contribute to the communities around us, good mental health is an essential aspiration of

well-functioning societies.

As Thomas Insel writes in the book “Healing”, mental health problems are medical, but the solutions are not just medical - they are social, environmental, and political.

NeuroCentury designs mental health strategies and engages in promoting digital innovation to support the rollout of essential care and services.

BRAIN HEALTH

A healthy brain requires a life course approach that starts from neurodevelopment in early childhood and goes all the way to healthy and active ageing.

NeuroCentury designs brain health strategies and their implementation pathways. It crafts brain health services and methods to mainstream prevention. Through its technology focus, it supports diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs. NeuroCentury champions the onset of neuromonitoring as part-and-parcel of standard clinical practice.