South Africa Project: Sustainable Brain Scanning & Education

Hi, my name is Becky Inkster. I'm a neuroscientist with a lifelong passion for serving humanity.

I hope you don't mind me taking a moment to share something personal about my recent work trip to South Africa: https://www.beckyinkster.com/southafrica2025

While I was in South Africa in June, I successfully and seemlessly used a portable EEG device to safely scan people in real-world settings during their own chosen unique and personal moment. What felt groundbreaking was that I was able to analyse the brain, heart, and head motion data very rapidly (less than a minute), which allowed for me and the participant(s) to co-interpret their own experience with me guiding them through their brain, heart, and head motion data alongside understanding time-stamped observational notes I took during their chosen moment. All of this combined information right at our finger tips in the moment helped to engage people and helped them to understand this information within the context of their chosen moment (listening to music, internally reflecting about a past trauma, trying to find balance in life, looking at photos to reflect on heritage). Post-scanning session feedback from people was overwhelmingly positive: “you made me feel comfortable, welcomed and also fed my curiosity through answering all questions that I had throughout the whole procedure” and “I was connected to you and your work from the moment you started”.

One of the participant's feedback really stuck with me, in mixed ways. She said "Thank you for giving us a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only was I blown away, but the whole entire experience was magical." I just couldn't shake the words 'once in a lifetime...' out of my mind. It shouldn't be only once in a lifetime. It was so easy to achieve with such positive outcomes...

I would like to return to South Africa end of September 2025 to donate one of our portable EEG devices and our software all for free and to train appropriate trusted people to sustainably self-operate this technology for free in the future with our continued remote support. I am fundraising to make this possible. I need to raise ideally £2500 by the end of August 2025 (return flight London to Cape Town, accommodation etc). If you would like to donate, my Go Fund Me page is here: https://gofund.me/425a712c

To find out more about what we do at The Lab: https://www.beckyinkster.com/the-lab

More details and context:

I would like to request funds in order to gift a brain scanning headset and our Python code and relevant technology to a trusted group of real world researchers so that creative and supportive real-world real-time brain scanning can be carried out by South Africans for South Africans. As co-founder of The Lab our vision is to offer real-world real-time brain scans while people engage in their own chosen moments. Our approach offers instant data analysis and time-stamped observations that we can then share with the person to gain a deeper appreciation for the brain and human experiences with meaning https://www.beckyinkster.com/the-lab

I would like to raise funds so that I can travel to Cape Town, South Africa and work with trusted academics who work closely with youth including low resource communities to support them to create their own data storytelling journeys. I would require funds for my flight, accommodation, and associated costs. This would enable me to do some very detailed brain training activities involving very novel methodologies and then to present findings at a conference.

This work would be carried out in collaboration with and other trusted leaders in this important space https://cocreatehealth.co.za

The trip is estimated to take place before and during the Co-Create2025 conference. Training staff would be from 24-29th September and then sharing findings at the conference 30-2nd October then returning to London, UK where I am based.

As I am self-employed I won't be able to carry-out this project unless it is fully funded. If this project does not take place I would endeavour to provide a full refund (minus go fund me transaction fees) to all donors.