Benelux Enterprise Awards 2020

18 EU BUSINESS NEWS / 2020 Benelux Enterprise Awards , Most Innovative Neuroscience & Personal Development Enterprise 2020 & Award for Excellence in Online Learning 2020 While we’ve all been spendingmuchmore time in our homes this year thanwe intended, students of the Brain Academy have been boosting their knowledge and following great, high- quality courses that have helped themachieve a better quality of life. Jul20583 Being stuck inside all year is no excuse to let your mind turn to mush. The Brain Academy is an online learning platform that looks at real neuroscience research and helps develop your brain. The company started publishing work and modules in 2014, but officially kicked off in 2017. The high quality, brain-related content that they create is distributed through different online channels – a web-based course, over social media, published in books and in person at conferences. Their main aim is to make brain science accessible to the masses. They ‘translate’ scientific studies and theories into easily digestible information which can be applied in real life. Many studies have been carried out on the brain and the way it works, but a lot of the information is locked behind inaccessible language and lost in the mountainous piles of scientific papers. Brain Academy set out to change that. “Our aim is to help people understand how their brain works in order to help them achieve a better quality of life,” said Gregory Caremans of the Brain Academy. “We are driven by a fascination for the human mind, and beyond that by authenticity, enthusiasm, creativity, innovation and science.” The Brain Academy has seen the support of some highly regarded groups. They have entered into a partnership with the Economist and have had two TEDx appearances. It was also the first online course on Neuroplasticity and hundreds of copycats have spawned since their launch. Worldwide, the Brain Academy have enrolled over 300,000 students in one of their online classes. You could never teach that many people in a lecture hall or auditorium, and so the medium through which Brain Academy teach has been vital to their success. Leveraging the power of the internet to teach people about their brain was a real breakthrough. Hearteningly, the team behind the Brain Academy receive daily messages from their students thanking them for putting the content out there in such a practical and easy-to-digest way. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen the benefit of attending the Brain Academy’s online course. Gregory added “Being able to make a difference, to impact lives, is our real motivation behind our work. It was never about the money. The first nine months (in 2014) we didn’t earn a cent. Literally.” This student-first mentality has really helped to set the Brain Academy apart from the few pre- existing courses online in the field, and all of the copycat courses that have sprouted since. Many of the existing courses were quite dry, Gregory said, with an emphasis on the academic approach. The Brain Academy use a combination of education and entertainment to get their information across. The courses at the Brain Academy have been designed to be fun and entertaining, peppered with a series of ‘aha!’ moments. The quality of the courses comes from the hours of research that the team pour into each lesson. They do the hard work of thoroughly researching a subject and turn it into fun and engaging learning. Each Brain Academy course has been thoroughly researched and is a truly original creation. As tempting as it is to look elsewhere online and mimic what other courses have done, the Brain Academy holds onto its originality with pride, and leave the mimicking to those trying to replicate the success of the Brain Academy team. Although the coronavirus pandemic has been devastating for some industries and economies, online learning is one that hasn’t been affected too badly. In fact, it seems that online learning has seen a boost. “Online learning worldwide has seen an impressive surge during lockdown,” Gregory said. “Apparently, people have quickly looked for alternatives to Netflix as they were bored in their houses. Many people have tried online learning for the first time in their life and found it an interesting experience. It is a real possibility that the pandemic will be seen as the moment where online learning first became mainstream.” The Brain Academy have been helped by the fact that they are a completely digital company. Due to the nature of their courses, they didn’t want the expertise that they needed to be limited by geography. Their experts are located all over the world and worked remotely even before the pandemic struck. They have always sought the most expert people to join their team, wherever they are in the world. A side effect of this is that the lockdown hasn’t altered their procedures or processes even slightly. Currently, the Brain Academy is only offering their courses in English, but this is soon to change. They are in the process of translating their courses to Portuguese, Spanish, French and Chinese, all while continuing to produce their original content. Wherever you are in the world, and whatever language you speak, you will soon be able to join the Brain Academy and benefit from their high-quality courses. Company: Brain Academy Contact: Gregory Caremans Website: www.brainacademy.com Brain Academy