FET winners announced
The winners of the European Commission’s Future Emerging Technologies (FET) Competition have been announced in Brussels today.
With representatives of the projects and two Nobel Prize winners in the audience, speaking in the European Commission, Vice-President of the Commission, with responsibility for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes announced the winners of the largest ever European research cash award: Graphene and the Human Brain Project.
Describing Europe as the home of ‘scientific excellence’, Kroes said that the funding of €1bn provided to each project would put Europe back in the driving seat of science.
The two projects will each receive half a billion euro in EU funding over the next ten years, which will be provided by member states, industrial partners and others, thereby ensuring that each project will receive €1bn in funding over a ten-year span. However, some uncertainty still surrounds what shape the final funding will take, with commitment from member states, and industrial and project partners required.
The Human Brain Project hopes to create a full simulation of the human brain on a supercomputer, through the collating of data on the brain. Funding for graphene is designed to promote the fundamental research and industrialisation of this promising 2D material.
The Vice-President used the event to launch a call for the creation of a ‘graphene valley’, likening the potential this technology has to the disruptive impact silicon-based computing had on the global economy in the late 20th Century.
During a Q&A session with the press, Kroes went on to link the Human Brain Project with efforts to meet an ageing population through its anticipated impact on medical advances.
Ahead of next week’s budget negotiations, the Commissioner also used the event to discuss Horizon 2020, the next framework funding programme. Urging member states not to jeopardise this tool for economic growth, she said: “This investment is an economic imperative: I hope that member states will do the right thing for Europe’s future when discussing the Union’s budget next week.”
Referring to the other four candidates that were considered under the FET programme selection process (IT Future of Medicine, Guardian Angels for a Smarter Life, FuturICT and Robot Companions), Kroes commended them and said she hoped they would achieve their potential.
