The AnyMinds Initiative provides a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue, the development of new research ideas, and the formation of an international community working toward a comparative understanding of consciousness.

The central activity of the Initiative is the Animal Consciousness Conferences — a series of intensive interdisciplinary workshops designed to foster deep discussion and collaborative exploration of the scientific and conceptual foundations of consciousness research.

The origins of the AnyMinds Initiative lie in discussions with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the scientific and ethical implications of consciousness in the animal world.

These discussions led to the organization of the first Animal Consciousness Conferences, held in Dharamsala in 2023. The meeting brought together Buddhist scholars and researchers from several disciplines to explore the foundations of the question of animal consciousness, its distribution in nature, and how it might be investigated empirically.

From the beginning, the goal was not simply to debate philosophical questions but to encourage the development of scientific approaches capable of advancing our understanding of consciousness beyond the human mind.

The central activity of the AnyMinds Initiative is the Animal Consciousness Conferences — a series of small interdisciplinary meetings designed to promote sustained dialogue and collaborative exploration of consciousness across different kinds of minds.

Unlike traditional academic conferences, the ACC meetings are organized as intensive workshops combining short presentations with extended discussions in small working groups. This format encourages deep interaction between participants and allows the meetings to focus on conceptual clarification and the development of new research ideas.

Since the first meeting in Dharamsala, the conference series has continued with gatherings in Kathmandu (2024) and the Galápagos Islands (2025), each exploring different aspects of the scientific study of non-human consciousness.