Course 17

Bridging East and West: Incorporating Chinese Perspectives into a Global Data Governance Framework for Brain Data

Instructors: Aleksandra Landowska, Huimin Tang, Damian Eke

About this course

This workshop addresses a critical gap in the global governance of brain data: the underrepresentation of Chinese and East Asian perspectives in emerging international frameworks. For these frameworks to be genuinely global, there is a need to reflect the perspectives of Asia, particularly China, which is one of the biggest and fastest-growing forces in neuroscience and neurotechnology. Through the China Brain Project and Japan Brain/MIND, Asia is shaping the future of brain-computer interfaces, fNIRS, EEG, and wearable neurophysiological devices at an unprecedented scale. China brings a distinctive and rapidly evolving data governance landscape, including the PIPL and the Data Security Law, which differ in important ways from GDPR, the UK Data Protection Act, HIPAA, emerging US state-level neural data laws, and African Union frameworks. Building on the BRIDGE and NeuroMaps projects outputs, this interactive workshop brings together Chinese researchers, technologists, and regulatory scholars alongside collaborators from Europe, the US, and Africa to co-produce actionable outputs – including a cross-jurisdictional compliance checklist and governance recommendations – for a global brain data governance framework.

What will you learn?

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to do the following

• Explain the key similarities and differences between major data governance frameworks relevant to brain data and articulate how these frameworks apply specifically to fNIRS, EEG, and neurophysiological data.
• Identify the principal regulatory, ethical, and practical barriers to cross-border brain data sharing between European, American, African, and Chinese research groups, including differences in consent models, data sovereignty and localisation requirements, and cultural attitudes toward neurological and mental health data.
• Use a cross-jurisdictional compliance checklist – co-developed during the workshop – to evaluate whether a planned multi-site fNIRS (or other neurotechnology) study meets the data protection requirements of each relevant jurisdiction.
• Understand the BRIDGE governance framework and know how to contribute to or adopt its principles within their own institutional and national contexts.
• Leave with a concrete set of co-produced recommendations, draft tools, and draft templates for cross-regional data sharing agreements that they can apply in their own research practice and policy engagement.
• Be connected to an international collaborative network spanning Europe, the UK, the US, Africa, and China, with clear pathways for ongoing participation in the development of globally inclusive brain data governance standards.

Course details

Delivery plan

00:00-00:10 Welcome and framing

Objectives, expected outputs, and how workshop notes/recommendations will be captured.

00:10-00:25 Context and positioning

Brief background on BRIDGE/NeuroMaps relevance and why integrating Chinese/East Asian perspectives is critical to “global” governance.

00:25-01:05 Activity 1: Comparative analysis of policies, regulations and governance

Structured small-group work to compare how brain data are governed across Europe/USA/Africa/China (policy/regulation, ethics, research practice). Output: a consolidated alignment/divergence map.

01:05-01:15 Short break

01:15-01:55 Activity 2: Identifying gaps and barriers to cross-regional collaboration

Facilitated discussion to surface and prioritise barriers to cross-border brain-data sharing and joint research. Output: ranked barrier list with brief notes on “why this matters” for collaboration.

01:55-02:45 Activity 3: Developing solutions and shared principles

Collaborative co-design of bridging tools and strategies, including: shared governance principles; compliance-compatibility ideas; template elements for cross-regional data-sharing agreements; inclusivity strategies across contexts.

Hands-on checklist/framework: participants co-develop a draft collaboration checklist/framework in a shared template and apply it to a realistic cross-border scenario, iterating the tool based on group feedback.

02:45-03:00 Consolidation and next steps

Confirm written recommendations to feed into BRIDGE/NeuroMaps; outline next steps for sustaining the partner network and broader collaboration

Why should you enroll in this course?

The fNIRS community is increasingly international, with research groups across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia generating brain data at scale. Yet governance frameworks for how this data is collected, shared, and protected remain regionally fragmented. The BRIDGE project has made significant progress in developing an inclusive governance framework spanning European, African, and American contexts, but for this framework to be genuinely global, there is a need to reflect the perspectives of Asia, particularly China, which is one of the biggest, most significant and fastest-growing forces in neuroscience and neurotechnology. Through the China Brain Project and Japan Brain/MIND, Asia is contributing to shaping the future of brain-computer interfaces, fNIRS, EEG, and wearable neurophysiological devices at an unprecedented scale. China brings a distinctive and rapidly evolving data governance landscape, including the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) and the Data Security Law, which differ in important ways from GDPR and other Western frameworks. How these fit into the BRIDGE framework is critical to the effectiveness of the framework for the international research community.

Positioning this workshop at fNIRS 2026 in China creates a timely, field-relevant opportunity: to convene Chinese researchers and governance experts together with international collaborators in a structured, output-oriented format, and to feed concrete, community-informed results back into ongoing framework-building efforts (BRIDGE; NeuroMaps outputs). The inclusion of major East Asian brain initiatives (e.g., China Brain Project and Brain/MINDS) further underlines why East Asian perspectives must be treated as core inputs when designing governance that supports global collaboration.

Goals of the workshop:

• Produce a concise, comparative map of where regional approaches to brain-data governance align versus diverge across policy/regulation, ethics, and research practice (Europe,US, Africa, China; with explicit consideration of East Asia perspectives).
• Identify and prioritise the most consequential barriers to cross-regional brain-data sharing and joint research (e.g., regulatory incompatibilities, consent-model differences, data sovereignty constraints, and culturally shaped expectations around neurological and mental health data).
• Co-develop reusable “bridging” resources that participants can apply after the workshop, including: a draft governance checklist/framework (structured questions/steps) with hands-on guidance for how to use it; candidate compatibility approaches to anticipate cross-jurisdictional compliance issues; and draft elements for cross-regional data-sharing agreements and shared governance principles. Deliver written recommendations to incorporate Chinese and East Asian perspectives into the BRIDGE and NeuroMaps frameworks, and establish a durable collaborative network of Chinese regional partners.