SWC/GCNU Neuroinformatics Unit

Screenshots from the new "Scale pose tracks to real-world units" showing the measurement of known lengths in a video.

Version 0.15.0 of movement released!

New features include:

- Derivation of bounding boxes from pose tracks
- Saving and loading of RoIs via GeoJSON
- A new example for scaling pose tracks to real-world coordinates

Release notes: github.com/neuroinforma...

Docs: movement.neuroinformatics.dev

The post will be based in the Neuroinformatics Unit at @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social, working with the Mrsic-Flogel, Branco and @behrenstimb.bsky.social labs.

Start ASAP, funded until Sept 2028 in the first instance. Salary £54-62k.

Drawing of the "Aeon" project, an open-source platform to study the neural basis of ethological behaviours over naturalistic timescales.

Are you a neuroscientist with great coding skills, or a software engineer interested in the brain?

We are recruiting for a research software engineer to help us build pipelines to process weeks of neural and behavioural recordings from freely moving animals.

More details: bit.ly/rse-2026a

We have a list of project ideas, but we're also very open to hearing proposals. In 2026 we will focus on:
- Researcher-led projects to increase accessibility (a great way for scientists to get involved with software development)
- Projects to reduce technical debt and increase maintainability

The Google Summer of Code and Neuroinformatics Unit logos next to each other.

Do you want to spend the summer being paid to contribute to open source neuroscience software?

We are taking part in Google Summer of Code again, offering paid, remote placements to work on one of our tools. Open to (nearly) everyone worldwide.

More details: neuroinformatics.dev/get-involved...

Part 3 of my "Trusted by design" blog series is live at neuroinformatics.dev/blog/trusted...

Open-source software is public, yet much of the communication around it may happen in private channels. What if communication were radically open—visible to anyone who cares to look?

The CArea mouse brain atlas has been added to BrainGlobe!

This atlas has regions which are automatically clustered based on three dimensional maps of gene expression.

Read more in the blog: brainglobe.info/blog/carea-a...

Just over a week left to apply to apply to the Neuroinformatics Unit Open Software Summer School, August 17-28 2026 in London, UK!

Bringing together researchers and open source developers of ephys, behaviour and image analysis tools.

Deadline Feb 15th.

neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Second part of a blogpost series about how to faciliate adoption of your research software by NIU senior research software engineer, @nikosirmpilatze.com.

Part 2 of the "Trusted by design" blog series is out today @neuroinformatics.dev.

'Release early, release often' is an often-repeated mantra, but...

How early? How often? And why is this so critical to establishing and maintaining trust?

See neuroinformatics.dev/blog/trusted...

Working with rats, & not happy w MRI based brain atlases from adult males? We've got you! High resolution (2photon), 3D atlases (female rats) are now available in @brainglobe.info. Plz start using these atlases & let us know your feedback for the official release!
brainglobe.info/blog/swc-fem...

🐭🧠

New blogpost outlining our work with @athenaakrami.bsky.social at @sainsburywellcome.bsky.social to build light-microscopy based atlases of the rat brain.

brainglobe.info/blog/swc-fem...

*Trusted by design: set up your research software for community adoption*

By Niko Sirmpilatze @nikosirmpilatze.com

fosdem.org/2026/schedul...

An overview of the Open Software Summer School 2026 schedule. There are two tracks in the first week, "Animals in Motion" and "Large Array Data". "BrainGlobe" and "Extracellular Electrophysiology" will be run in the second week.

Applications to our summer school have been extended for two weeks!

If you want to learn about open-source tools for neuroscience, please join us in London this August.

Deadline Feb 15th.

Full details: neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Go listen to @nikosirmpilatze.com's talks at FOSDEM this weekend!

If you can't make it, Niko is writing a blog series about how to write your research software in a way that it gets adopted by the wider community.

Read more about it on our website: neuroinformatics.dev/blog/trusted...

Applications close on Saturday. Make sure to get your applications in!

An overview of the Open Software Summer School 2026 schedule. There are two tracks in the first week, "Animals in Motion" and "Large Array Data". "BrainGlobe" and "Extracellular Electrophysiology" will be run in the second week.

Three weeks left to apply for the Neuroinformatics Unit Open Software Summer School, August 17-28 2026 in London, UK!

Bringing together researchers and open source developers of ephys, behaviour and image analysis tools.

neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Deadline January 31st. Apply now!

Read the story behind the first @neuroinformatics.dev Open Software Week, in a series of blogposts for @softwaresaved.bsky.social

The second edition will be even more awesome. Remember to apply by the end of January:

neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Find out about Alessandro's Fellowship journey and experience organising OSW in this companion blog post: www.software.ac.uk/blog/bridgin...

Find out about Niko's experience running the first Animals in Motion workshop at OSW in this companion blog post: www.software.ac.uk/blog/animals...

🧑‍🔬 In August 2025, SSI Fellows Alessandro Felder and @nikosirmpilatze.com co-organised the Neuroinformatics Unit Open Software Week (OSW).

Read more about the event in our latest blog post: www.software.ac.uk/blog/greater...

One week left to apply for this summer school. Deadline Jan 31st.

Any questions, let me know.

neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Very excited to be running our @neuroinformatics.dev Open Software Summer School again in August 2026.

This has been one of the most satisifying things we've done, especially as a number of participants have gone on to become collaborators.

Full details: neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

An overview of the Open Software Summer School 2026 schedule. There are two tracks in the first week, "Animals in Motion" and "Large Array Data". "BrainGlobe" and "Extracellular Electrophysiology" will be run in the second week.

Three weeks left to apply for the Neuroinformatics Unit Open Software Summer School, August 17-28 2026 in London, UK!

Bringing together researchers and open source developers of ephys, behaviour and image analysis tools.

neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Deadline January 31st. Apply now!

I'll be coordinating the "Animals in Motion" track of this summer school, in August 2026. Apply to join us for some hands-on learning and collaboration on open-source tools for video behavioural analysis. See neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

@neuroinformatics.dev 's Open Software Week 2025 was a great experience to learn about Neuroinformatics, data science, and hands-on python programming. I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the hack day to come up with a solution for pose skeleton estimation.

Thank you to the whole team!!!

A schematic to show the combination of the SAM-2 model and scikit-image to analyse images of C. Elegans.

Great new guest blog post by Pille Wetterauer and @jyoti-bhogal.bsky.social about their summer school project to extract a pose estimation skeleton for C. elegans.

neuroinformatics.dev/blog/worms_o...

The date should of course be August 17-28 2026!

Full details are on our website: neuroinformatics.dev/open-softwar...

Any questions, please ask, either here or via our Zulip: neuroinformatics.zulipchat.com#narrow/chann...

You can also come for two weeks and attend two tracks!

This event builds on our successful pilot event this year.

Read more in the guest blog post by participant @marcodv.bsky.social:

neuroinformatics.dev/blog/perspec...

You can choose which of the four tracks to attend:
- Animals in Motion (analysing video behavioural data)
- Large Array Data (how to handle large data in Python)
- BrainGlobe (computational neuroanatomy-@brainglobe.info)
- Extracellular electrophysiology (using SpikeInterface to process probe data)