About

About the inaugural Brain Capital Summit

Investing in our brain health and skills to build our resilience, creativity, adaptability

The aim of the first Brain Capital Summit to be held in Australia is to ignite new thinking around how prioritising our brains can unlock immense potential for ourselves and society as a whole.

Uniting stakeholders who share a purpose to educate, nurture, prepare, and care for brains is a crucial step in reorienting our economy to value flourishing humans at its core.

About the Brain Capital global movement

Brain Capital is increasingly being recognised internationally as a useful proactive framework to secure economic growth, societal development, and global equity.

Brain Capital is the cumulative brain health and brain skills of a society.

The Brain Capital Alliance (Alliance) was formed following the success of the OECD Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative and unites world-class contributors to explore how to best build brain capital at a societal scale. The steering committee includes Australians former SA premier Jay Weatherill from the Minderoo Foundation and Associate Professor Jo-An Occhipinti from the Mental Wealth Initiative at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney and is led by Professor Harris A. Eyre, a fellow in brain health at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Brilliant minds are at work developing ways to measure the value of nations through the generative value of their populations’ brains. The European Brain Council will meet in September 2024 at the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York to emphasise the urgency of prioritising brain health at the global level. The Council will call for greater investment in research and innovation to understand the brain better, develop treatments and cures to improve brain health, deliver deeper insights into brain disorders and understand how building brain capital can strengthen the social fabric and resilience of nations.

Why Brain Capital?

Neurological conditions are now the leading cause of ill health and disability globally. Mental health issues and neurological disorders result in lost productivity and underutilisation of existing human resources (our brains!). In Australia, a 2021 BeyondBlue/PwC Report found that untreated mental health conditions cost our workplaces $10.9 billion per year including $4.7 billion in absenteeism and $6.1 billion in presenteeism.

‘To support the flourishing of the global population in the age of polycrisis, we need a novel, person-centred and collective paradigm – a brain economy. The brain economy leverages insights from neuroscience to provide a novel way of centralising the human contribution to the economy, how the economy in turn shapes our lives and positive feedbacks between the two. The brain economy is primarily based on Brain Capital, an economic asset integrating brain health and brain skills, the social, emotional, and the diversity of cognitive brain resources of individuals and communities.’

– Harris Eyre

Brain Capital lies at the heart of Australia’s growth and prosperity. Investing in our brains not only enables individuals to lead purposeful lives but also fosters critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration—all vital skills for navigating the complexities of the modern world. Prioritising brain health and brain skills across the full lifespan will yield invaluable dividends for health, education, justice, democracy, innovation and environmental stewardship. Building brain capital emerges as a systemic solution to foster inclusive economic prosperity, social wellness, and human thriving.

Who will be at the Brain Capital Summit 2025?

The Brain Capital Summit 2025 will gather experts, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from diverse backgrounds. This presents an excellent opportunity for networking, forging partnerships, and collaborating on initiatives to improve brain health outcomes globally. An audience of approximately 200-250 is expected to attend Brain Capital Summit 2025, with the opportunity to make meaningful connections with:

> Corporates and organisations who see the value in the transformative potential of building brain health and skills

> Emerging leaders of today and tomorrow from Australia and overseas

> Members of the extended scientific innovation ecosystem including universities and research funding bodies

> Impact, philanthropic, venture capital, corporate, and angel investors

> Government agencies and public policy influencers

> Innovators and entrepreneurs – especially neurotech and brain health

How did the Brain Capital Summit happen?

Rachel Slattery’s latest venture, Silver Futures, aims to help people rethink and reimagine how we can ensure longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives for us all. Rachel became more and more fascinated about how our brains were key to our health, our contributions and our wellbeing. The notion of Brain Capital appeals to her as a way to think about investing in our own and our collective futures by caring for our brains. So Rachel sought out Harris Eyre who generously connected her to global leaders in the Brain Capital sphere to bring about the Australian gathering in May 2025.

The Brain Capital Summit is buoyed by the Slatterys team whose experience includes creating and nourishing communities of curious minds around frontier tech and better ways of working. Slatterys is the creative force behind renowned conferences, the Agile Australia (AgileAus) Conference established in 2009 and Tech23 – that Slatterys managed for 14 years before handing over to new custodians, Cicada Innovations.