International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI)
The International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative (INDI) aims to advance discovery science in human brain function by promoting large-scale, open sharing of resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) and phenotypic data. INDI builds on the success of the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project (FCP), which demonstrated the feasibility and impact of aggregating and openly releasing multi-site imaging datasets.
Background
The 1000 Functional Connectomes Project launched on December 11, 2009, aggregating and releasing over 1200 R-fMRI datasets collected from 33 sites worldwide. Released through NITRC, the dataset generated immediate and widespread engagement, including:
- 9000+ downloads within 6 months
- Access from 1,223 cities in 78 countries
- Coverage in Nature Medicine, Nature Methods, and the NIMH Director’s blog
- The landmark feasibility paper (Biswal et al., 2010, PNAS), downloaded 1000+ times in two weeks
The scientific impact was further demonstrated by rapid independent publications using the shared data (e.g., Tomasi & Volkow, 2010).
The response highlighted a clear need: the neuroimaging community requires large, openly accessible datasets to overcome barriers to statistical power, reproducibility, and cross-disciplinary involvement.
All raw imaging data remain hosted by INDI / NITRC and are subject to the INDI / CoRR Data Use Agreement.