Why brain health is everyone’s business: Brain Health Futures Summit 2025
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Article summary
- The Brain Health Futures Summit in Melbourne on November 13 unites world-leading thinkers — from neuroscientists and policymakers to designers and entrepreneurs — to explore how cognitive health shapes our collective future.
- Brain health meets design, tech, and climate in an urgent call to rethink how we live, learn, lead, and build — blending neuroscience, AI, and systems thinking with creative, human-centred innovation.
- More than a conference — it’s a movement. Expect bold ideas, practical insights, and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen brain capital and reimagine leadership, wellbeing, and resilience.
By Alexi Freeman
Mental clarity is on the slide, neurodegenerative disease is on the rise, and the attention recession is creeping cognitive challenges into everyday life.
What if one transformational day could provide a portal into our brain’s future, and equip us with implementable tools to shape it?
Such a day is dawning as the upcoming Brain Health Futures Summit brings together world-leading neuroscientists, policymakers, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and community leaders.
Their shared mission?
To convey that science fiction is rapidly becoming a scientific reality, elevating brain health from a niche medical concern to a cultural movement shaping all aspects of life.
Keynote speaker Harris Eyre – physician-scientist and pioneer of the ‘brain economy’ movement – underscores the urgency, telling Local Peoples, “the brain economy is at a major inflection point, and now is the time for Australia to show strong leadership and action.
“In the twenty-first century, the most valuable asset of any nation is not its land or industry, but the cognitive, emotional, and social skills of its people – their brain capital.”
Connecting the Dots
Brain health isn’t only a matter for lab coat-wearing scientists; it influences formative learning, adults’ management of stress, and how older Australians retain independence and connection.
The pandemic, rising mental health concerns, and overstretched healthcare systems have catalysed the impacts, while breakthroughs in neuroscience – including the use of AI to detect cognitive disorders, machine learning in digital health, and lifestyle research – are creating new opportunities for mitigation.
The summit’s aim is to connect these dots and deliver actionable takeaways for attendees.
Bonnie Shaw – a leader in public sector innovation and adaptive leadership, summit convener, host, and cognitive health wunderkind – frames the event as a design challenge as much as a scientific one.
For Shaw, improving cognitive health requires weaving cutting-edge neuroscience into the fabric of everyday life, offering us this peek into her upcoming keynote address: “I hope people learn about the critical nature of this work to our health and wellbeing. And I hope they find it provocative and challenging. I hope they come away with some practical tips they can implement in their own lives and workplaces.”
Striking a high note in the summit’s choir of voices is Aiden Thornton, whose research applies systems thinking and complexity science to leadership. Thornton’s keynote will explore these intersections, arguing that how we think, decide, and collaborate may determine the future of human civilisation.
Thornton explains: “Systemic complexity has outstripped leaders’ cognitive capacity, demanding a shift in how we think about leadership. In the 21st century, it’s about navigating complex hybrid human and silicon systems.”
He also illuminates opportunities for impact: “Brain health is biological, psychological, and social, so it demands transdisciplinary perspectives. Integrating brain health and leadership studies allows leaders to foster healthier minds and navigate complexities more skilfully.”
Beyond Medicine: A Global Movement
This isn’t another gated scientific conference. The Brain Health Futures Summit is a deliberately broad church – policymakers rub shoulders with clinicians, researchers fraternise with entrepreneurs, and community leaders share insights from lived experience.
It’s a space to pick brains, expand minds, and inspire neural pathways whose butterfly effects may ripple far beyond the summit’s walls.
Eyre stresses the bigger picture.
“By actively growing brain capital, people and communities across sectors can support the transition from a ‘brain-negative’ economy – characterised by poor health and reduced productivity – to a ‘brain-positive’ economy with healthier brains and thriving markets.”
The summit will shine a light on innovations already reshaping lives: digital tools that track cognitive well-being, workplace policies and wellness spaces designed to extinguish burnout, and urban planning that values the emotional landscape as much as physical infrastructure.
Our Environment Runs Skin Deep
Brain health interweaves a web of factors – sleep, diet, movement, nutrition, relationships, and purpose – and climate change adds an unpredictable gossamer thread to this complex structure.
Witnessing environmental damage in our own backyards – a phenomenon known as solastalgia – is taking a toll on minds and communities.
Neuroscientist Burcin Ikiz, founder of the Neuro-Climate Working Group, explores how climate intersects with cognition, stress, and resilience: “Our brains are the foundation of who we are, driving memory, creativity, learning, and social connection, and they are increasingly challenged by a rapidly changing climate and a planet in crisis.”
Ikiz adds: “The climate crisis is also a brain crisis, yet our brains hold the creativity, empathy, and resilience needed to solve it.” And she underscores the opportunity: “When we protect the planet, we are also protecting the most vital ecosystem of all – our brains.”
Why Here and Now?
Melbourne – home to world-leading design and medical universities, health-tech ecosystems, and community-driven mental health initiatives – is well-suited to hosting a summit exploring the next generation of ideas in experimental brain research.
The summit will create space for serendipitous conversations poised to spark the next lightbulb moments in cognitive health.
Thornton sheds light on the timeliness: “This summit matters because brain health is not just a medical issue, it is the foundation for how we think, decide, and lead together.”
From Labs to Living Rooms
Attendees won’t just leave with lofty visions – they’ll be armed with practical ways to enhance cognition, as brain health isn’t only about mental gymnastics – it encompasses the full gamut of modern lifestyle complexities, including our connection with Nature.
Seemingly incidental shifts – rethinking screen time for kids, redesigning workplaces to safeguard focus, and (re)building communities that reduce isolation and increase biophilia – aggregate to tangible benefits to our collective brain health.
Joining the Brain Health Movement is a No-Brainer
“Brain health is the bedrock of our ability to approach complexity, leadership, truth, and ethics wisely. Invest in healthy brains, and we invest in civilisation’s resilience,” notes Thornton.
This summit isn’t a sit-back-and-listen experience, but rather an invitation to co-create the future shades of grey matter as researchers unveil breakthroughs, policymakers gain evidence-based insights, and community members share food for thought through their first-hand accounts.
Ikiz plants a seed as to why you need to be there: “Globally, this summit is timely because protecting brain health is inextricably linked to protecting planetary health.”
In a world facing technological, emotional, and environmental challenges, there’s no better time to get those neurons firing, as our future brain health isn’t someone else’s responsibility – it’s everyone’s business.
Help shape the wave that’s rolling toward our cognitive future by securing your spot at the Library at the Dock, Docklands, on November 13, 2025.
Nab your tickets here.
For a rundown of the program and all the speakers, head to the official website.
