Advisory Boards
Advisory boards play a crucial role in achieving the long-term goals of the iCNS by providing strategic advice and promoting collaboration between different disciplines.
Strategic Board
The Startegic Board (SB) consists of one senior representative of each host institute of the consortium, equivalent to a dean or a research director. The members of the SB advise on all relevant matters concerning iCNS.
Young Researchers Council
The Young Researchers Council (YRC) consists of three elected representatives of the doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers involved in iCNS. Every year, the early-stage researchers elect one new representative, thus ensuring both continuity and renewal in the YRC. The YRC advises the EB, both at the request of the EB and on its own initiative.
YRC 2025 - 2026:
David van Lee (left), Chloé LeMaoult (middle), Daan van der Vliet (right)

International Advisory Board
The International Advisory Board (IAB) is composed of internationally renowned scientists and high-level representatives from potential knowledge users. Its role is to provide an external point of view on the overall strategy of iCNS, and on its maximal impact, to advise on, and connect to, complementary initiatives worldwide, and to advise on the selection of new talent and personnel. The IAB has five “chambers”, representing the scientific community, clinicians, patients, industry, and ethics.
| Member | Institute | Country | Role | Chamber |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boudewijn Lelieveldt | LUMC | NL | Professor of Biomedical Imaging, board member of Brainscape | IAB-S |
| Brenda Penninx | NL | AUMC | Vice-chair at the Psychiatry department | IAB-C |
| Casper Hoogenraad | NL | UU | Professor of Molecular Neuroscience at UU. Vice president, head of Neuroscience at Genentech Research | IAB-I |
| Dirk-Jan Saaltink | NL | Dutch Brain Foundation | Senior polocy officer at the Dutch Brain Foundation | IAB-P |
| Elisabeth Binder | DE | MPI | Director Translational Research in Psychiatry at the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich | IAB-S |
| Elly Hol | NL | UU | Head of the department of Translational Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center | IAB-S |
| Gerben Meynen | NL | VU | Professor by special appointment of ethics, bioethics and spychiatry | IAB-E |
| Gustavo Turecki | CA | DRC | Director of the Douglas Research Centre | IAB-S |
| Guus Smit | NL | VU | Director of the Center of Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research | IAB-S |
| Josef Priller | UK/DE | UE/CUB | Chair of Brain Inflammation at the University of Edinburgh and professor of neurospychiatry at Charité University Berlin | IAB-C |
| Marieke van Eijkelen | NL | Plusminus | Plusminus association of and for people with BPD and their relatives | IAB-P |
| Sachin Patel | USA | FSMNU | Chair of psychiatry and behavioral science of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University | IAB-C |
| Schahram Akbarian | USA | Mount Sinai School of Medicine | MD, division of Psychiatric Epigenomics, deptartment of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. Spearheading PsychENCODE. | IAB-S |
| Staci Bilbo | USA | DU | Haley family professor of psychology and neurscience | IAB-S |
| Uwe Grether | CH | Roche | Principal Investigator | IAB-I |
