Scotland has considerable strengths in relevant research in clinical and basic neurosciences, psychiatry, psychology, linguistics and informatics. These strengths come from high calibre researchers in Universities, well-characterised patient populations and excellent networks of clinical care.

The rapidly increasing dependence on imaging in research in neurosciences, as well as a major expansion into use of imaging by other disciplines such as Informatics, has resulted in the expectation that imaging should be available as a routine tool across the sector. For example, a substantial proportion of research in neuroscience funded by the UK's major grant-giving bodies now involves the use of medical imaging. Furthermore, within Scotland the existing large base of EEG researchers provided a largely untapped opportunity for the imaging community as a whole.

Ensuring high-quality training across the research community should be of broad benefit, but cannot be achieved by individual laboratories in isolation - it requires the pooling of resources and extensive collaboration and interaction across a network of users who share broadly similar goals.

There is a strong tradition of inter-institutional and cross-disciplinary imaging collaborations* and strengths, many first established through the SFC Brain Imaging Research Centre. All these already included academics from all participating universities, working together since 1997 to develop imaging resources. Collectively we established the need for complex brain imaging in Scotland and for key elements of infrastructure support. The formation of SINAPSE in 2008 demonstrates that with a firm commitment to working together and a joint approach, we can achieve greater critical mass and sustainability long term, with resulting benefits to clinical research in Scotland.