Open Source Neuro
Open Neuroscience for
Teaching and Research
Open Source Neuro is a collaborative organisation working across countries and institutions to develop open-source devices, software and practical resources for neuroscience education and research.
We support their use through documentation, teaching, workshops and collaborative development.
Why OSN exists
Learn neuroscience by experimenting
Students should learn not only what neuroscience currently knows, but how that knowledge is made: by asking questions, making predictions, designing controlled experiments, recording observations and interpreting evidence.
OSN develops open teaching platforms that make neuronal and cellular mechanisms tangible. Learners can manipulate variables, observe live responses, collect data and examine how the instrument itself shapes what can be measured.
Make mechanisms tangible
Manipulate biologically meaningful variables and observe their effects through live signals, traces and measurable behaviour.
Practise experimental reasoning
Build investigations around questions, predictions, controls and measurements—including results that do not match expectations.
Understand the instrument and the evidence
Examine how measurements are produced, connect observations with models, and decide what experiment should come next.
What we develop
Education and Research
Our work is organised around two development programmes:
- Open platforms for neuroscience education
- Open tools for experimental research
Across both, we aim to make experimental systems understandable and adaptable, giving educators and researchers greater control over how observations are produced.
Education & Academia
Open teaching platforms, software and practical resources that bring electrophysiology-style investigation into the classroom.
Learners can control experimental variables, record and analyse neural responses, and develop experimental reasoning without relying on biological preparations.
Research
Open instruments, software and protocols developed with researchers to address defined experimental problems.
Documented designs support adaptation, experimental control and integration into laboratory workflows.
Education & Academia
A family of platforms for experimental neuroscience
OSN develops complementary teaching platforms that bring electrophysiology-style investigation into the classroom. Each makes a different level of neuronal function observable and controllable, from spiking behaviour and analogue circuit dynamics to the ionic mechanisms that shape membrane voltage.
Used independently or together, the platforms support a progression from introductory practicals to more advanced work in experimental design, data acquisition and analysis.
What we develop
Education and Research
Our work is organised around two development programmes:
- Open platforms for neuroscience education
- Open tools for experimental research
Across both, we aim to make experimental systems understandable and adaptable, giving educators and researchers greater control over how observations are produced.
Education & Academia
Open teaching platforms, software and practical resources that bring electrophysiology-style investigation into the classroom.
Learners can control experimental variables, record and analyse neural responses, and develop experimental reasoning without relying on biological preparations.
Research
Open instruments, software and protocols developed with researchers to address defined experimental problems.
Documented designs support adaptation, experimental control and integration into laboratory workflows.
Why OSN exists
Learn neuroscience by experimenting
Students should learn not only what neuroscience currently knows, but how that knowledge is made: by asking questions, making predictions, designing controlled experiments, recording observations and interpreting evidence.
OSN develops open teaching platforms that make neuronal and cellular mechanisms tangible. Learners can manipulate variables, observe live responses, collect data and examine how the instrument itself shapes what can be measured.
Make mechanisms tangible
Manipulate biologically meaningful variables and observe their effects through live signals, traces and measurable behaviour.
Practise experimental reasoning
Build investigations around questions, predictions, controls and measurements—including results that do not match expectations.
Understand the instrument and the evidence
Examine how measurements are produced, connect observations with models, and decide what experiment should come next.
Evidence in practice
Developed through use, documentation and collaboration
OSN projects are developed through practical use: in teaching, training, research and public engagement. The examples below connect these activities with dated cases, public documentation and outputs that can be inspected directly.
PARTNER-PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTION
Hands-on experimental neuroscience with TReND in Africa
Participants used an open neuronal model to manipulate experimental variables, record responses and interpret how changes in the system affected the observed activity.
The practical placed measurement, prediction and experimental reasoning at the centre of the learning process
CaMinA summer school - Kenya 2026
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What we develop
Education and Research
Our work is organised around two development programmes:
- Open platforms for neuroscience education
- Open tools for experimental research
Across both, we aim to make experimental systems understandable and adaptable, giving educators and researchers greater control over how observations are produced.
Education & Academia
Open teaching platforms, software and practical resources that bring electrophysiology-style investigation into the classroom.
Learners can control experimental variables, record and analyse neural responses, and develop experimental reasoning without relying on biological preparations.
Research
Open instruments, software and protocols developed with researchers to address defined experimental problems.
Documented designs support adaptation, experimental control and integration into laboratory workflows.