Legal and policy questions for international collaboration in neuroscience

The requirements for neuroinformatics to make a significant impact on the field of neuroscience as a whole are not simply technical - the hardware, software, and protocols for collaborative research - they also include the legal and policy frameworks within which research is conducted. This is not least because the creation of large collaborative scientific databases amplifies the complicated interactions between proprietary, for-profit R&D and public "open science". We draw on experiences from the field of bioinformatics to examine some of the likely consequences of these interactions in neuroscience. The widespread sharing of data and tools for neuroscientific research is a key step in the development of neuroinformatics. We consider some of the areas in which policy frameworks can facilitate these forms of collaboration, by easing legal and cultural barriers which have slowed developments to date.