Brain Health at the Science Summit of the 80th United Nations General Assembly
24.09.2025 - 26.09.2025
As part of the Global Brain Coalition, the European Brain Council (EBC) will host a high-level side event in the framework of the Science Summit at the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80) in New York City on 24-26 September 2025.
It is estimated that more than three billion people currently live with a neurological condition and 970 million with a mental health disorder worldwide. These conditions represent a high individual, social and economic burden and contribute immensely to the global burden of disease – in fact, as of 2024, neurological conditions alone are now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. The associated costs are placing mounting pressure on national fiscal budgets. Demographic changes—including shrinking working-age populations—are also reducing tax bases and exerting downward pressure on productivity and long-term economic growth.
The growing urgency to address this burden has catalysed a global movement to position brain health not only an issue of health or research, but as a social and fiscal public policy issue as well, with brain capital as a business and national competitiveness imperative. These priorities are now emerging as central to global conversations around public policy, economic development, and innovation.
Over the last several years, the need to place brain health and brain capital on the global agenda has gained critical momentum through a series of high-level convenings, pilot programs, and public-private partnerships. These efforts include regional breakthroughs such as Houston’s emerging brain health ecosystem; national brain health strategies now adopted by more than 20 countries; European Union initiatives led by the European Brain Council (EBC); and global coordination efforts such as the Brain Days at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Brain Health House at Davos, the World Economic Forum’s Brain Economy Action Forum, and the Business Collaborative for Brain Health. The 2025 Brain Days at UNGA80 build on this foundation—offering a strategic inflection point to sustain and scale action. This gathering represents another step forward in uniting science, policy, and economic stakeholders around a shared mission: to advance brain health as a driver of human and societal resilience.
2025 is a pivotal year to deepen and broaden this agenda, particularly at the global level. Despite times of change and unrest, momentum is building at international policy and investment level, with the United Nations (UN) and its agencies entering a crucial period of strategic planning, work programme, and milestone-setting and program design for the post-2030 era. We have before us an opportunity to transform momentum into coordinated global action. The additional insights gathered through UNGA80’s Brain Health Days will directly inform a Global Brain Health Action Plan aligned with upcoming milestones, including the G20 health track, the Lausanne Workshop XII, Davos 2026 as well as key political milestones at the regional and national levels, such as the launch of a European Partnership for Brain Health in 2026.
The topics of science collaboration and research funding remain vital amidst government changeups, multiannual funding frameworks and timelines ending as well as ongoing discussions for post-2030 budget lines. Amidst instability of national (i.e. UK, China, Japan, US) and international (i.e. EU, DFC’s, WHO) funding, there are also opportunities for growth and diversification.
Programme Skeleton
In terms of brain health and public health policy, the UN will convene their High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable diseases in the days surrounding the event, where Heads of States and Government will set a new vision to prevent and control NCDs towards 2030 and 2050 through a political declaration to be decided during the UN General Assembly (UNGA80), providing a unique opportunity to adopt a new, ambitious and achievable political declaration on NCDs towards 2050.
In this context, the Science Summit at UNGA80 offers a rich and unique opportunity to solidify brain health and brain capital as a global development priority— anchored in science, fiscal necessity, and economic resilience. The work initiated here will inform and propel a Brain Economy Action Plan to be advanced at Davos 2026, and feed into the many ongoing initiatives dedicated to improved outcomes in the brain space and a greater recognition of brain science and brain health in our society.
Alongside science collaboration and prioritization of brain health, the 2025 Brain Days at UNGA80 will touch on a wide variety of topics, demonstrating why we must remain steadfast in our work towards strengthening international brain research and addressing brain health across the life course and within all aspects of our lives (brain development, built environment, workplace mental health, etc.) in order to prepare for a brain healthier future for us and generations to come.