EU-US brain-mapping projects to collaborate

The EU’s €1bn Human Brain Project (HBP) and the United States’ $1bn Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative are to begin collaborating this year, according to government officials involved in both projects.

US Representative Chaka Fattah told Nature that the brain “is something that has defied understanding. You can’t imagine a more important scientific co-operation”.

US Government officials said that the collaboration will involve all of the BRAIN Initiative’s government partners: the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the National Science Foundation; and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Israel’s brain initiative is also expected to be involved.

A workshop taking place later this year, where the EU and US will discuss collaboration and data sharing, will launch the co-operation. The aim is to undertake as much research as possible while avoiding covering the same ground as one another.

The BRAIN Initiative’s aim is to create tools for imaging and controlling brain activity, while the HBP seeks to create a computational model of the brain. As the HBP needs actual brain data to design its model, the BRAIN Initiative needs a system for integrating its massive amounts of data.