The International Brain Initiative (IBI) brings together seven national brain initiatives – Canada, USA, Australia, the EU, S. Korea, China, and Japan – and an extraordinary range of disciplines spanning cellular and molecular neuroscience, neural engineering, humans systems, and neuroethics to realise a shared vision of global neuroscience impact. The IBI is grateful to the initial support of the Kavli Foundation. The new Secretariat based at UBC is made possible by funding from the Fonds du Recherche Québec and CIHR (INMHA).