Human Brain Project announces 32 new partner organisations
The Human Brain Project (HBP), one of the biggest EU-funded initiatives, has announced the beneficiaries of its €8.3m competitive call for new partners. 32 organisations from 13 countries – Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK – will join the partnership. This represents a 40% increase in the number of partners in the HBP consortium.
The HBP began in October 2013 with the aim of creating the world’s largest experimental facility for groundbreaking research into the structure and functions of the human brain, the causes, diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, and the development of new computing technologies such as low energy, brain-like computing systems. This research has the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for millions of Europeans, and to boost Europe’s role in this key scientific field. The HBP budget of €1bn is to be funded by the EU, member states and other sources.
Vice-President of the European Commission Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, welcomed the opening of the partnership: “Digital tools enable us to make huge progress in understanding the brain, but also to learn from it, from better treatment of brain diseases, to building the next generation of supercomputers. This is the challenge for our time and an investment in the future. I am delighted that we are putting our heads together with more partners – the more brain cells working in this area the better.”
The new partners will carry out specific research tasks collecting data, developing theoretical frameworks and performing the technical development work necessary for the future development of the six ICT platforms of the HBP.
Henry Markram, Professor of Neuroscience at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and the co-ordinator of the HBP said: “We owe a big debt of gratitude to all those who came forward with proposals, and to the nearly 200 independent, expert reviewers who helped us to run the evaluation process. We received many excellent proposals. As a result of the competitive call, the HBP will become a bigger and more capable partnership.”
