The core functional organization of the primate brain is remarkably conserved across our Order, a fact reflected in unique features of the primate cognitive faculty, as well as their predictive decline due to aging, disease or injury. While obviously fundamental, an important emphasis for this conference is that science alone, no matter how pioneering and remarkable, is unlikely to advance primate neuroscience in the modern era - it must be balanced by the following complementary efforts.

A dialogue between primate researchers and ethicists in the conference aims to articulate the significance of these issues and how they influence ongoing scientific endeavors. This includes a pointed effort to highlight the criticality of primates in translational research for human neuropsychiatric diseases and disorders.

The success of primate neuroscience research in the 21st century will necessitate a concerted effort of education and advocacy to the public, policy makers and fellow scientists about the importance of supporting primate research because of its unique role in translational research and the development of medical treatments for humans.

Increasingly few Universities and Institutes support nonhuman primate neuroscience research; even at those that do, the investigators are a notable minority. This has left the community as a loose patchwork across the country. The reimaging of primate neuroscience in the modern era emphasized here requires a coordinated, engaged community effort. In fact, the strategic choice of the conference title – “Simian Collective” – was to stress the importance of primate researchers as an integrated community. By involving a broad, diverse set of investigators and advocates in the genesis of the Simian Collective—as speakers, discussants and committee members— we endeavor to use the meeting as a springboard to build and promote the sense of community needed to achieve our broader goals.