Objective
The Human Brain Project (HBP) is a major European scientific research initiative to improve our understanding of the brain and the role it plays in making us human, and to exploit the opportunities offered by the resulting knowledge. The size and complexity of the brain make this an expensive undertaking, but the costs associated with our current ignorance are rising and the potential gains from better insight into the brain are increasing. Brain-related diseases, many of which are age-related, now represent a major part of the global health burden and there are both ethical and economic imperatives to keep the growing number of older people healthier and more productive. Economic advantage is increasingly linked to artificial intelligence (AI), our ability to create technology to extract, manipulate and harness knowledge. The HBP’s comprehension of what makes the human brain so efficient and flexible should help to maintain Europe’s competitiveness and innovation potential in this area.
The HBP is one of several brain research initiatives and projects around the world, albeit one of the first, but it is unique in a number of ways. Only the HBP has an explicit focus on both neuroscience and computing. It is also the broadest and most integrated brain initiative, and the only one aiming to build a research infrastructure to accelerate brain research.
The HBP is a FET Flagship which started under FP7 and continues under H2020 with a succession of Specific Grant Agreements (SGAs) under a Framework Partnership Agreement (FPA). In its FP7 Ramp-Up Phase (2013-16) and subsequent SGA1 funding period (2016-18), the HBP implemented a scientific project of rare ambition, breadth and scale, and forged its diverse constituents into a functioning entity. On the scientific side, it not only identified critical gaps in our understanding of the brain, but also created tools and obtained data to fill many of them. It designed, built and demonstrated six ICT research platforms, supporting neuroinformatics, brain simulation, high-performance analytics and computing, medical informatics, brain-inspired computing and linking of simulated brains to robotic bodies. The results have been made available to the scientific community. The HBP also learnt to address underperformance and conflicts, and opened up the Project via competitive calls and the integration of Partnering Projects.
In the upcoming SGA2 funding period (2018-20), the HBP will continue to strengthen global brain research efforts by extending coordination with other brain initiatives and projects. Internally, it will continue its unique inter-disciplinary co-design approach, developing research infrastructure capabilities via use cases built around specific research needs. This approach will underpin its critical scientific work of understanding how to bridge between the different scales of brain organisation, a key prerequisite to understand the principles of brain organisation. It will include gathering data to support detailed modelling, notably of the human hippocampus, as well as structural, functional and connectivity data to improve systemic understanding of the whole brain. The HBP will also investigate brain similarities and differences between individuals and between species. It will model key brain functions, including visual recognition, slow-wave activity, episodic memory and consciousness in rodents and humans, and elaborate their cognitive architectures. In addition, it will develop simplified brain models to support further development of brain-inspired computing.
SGA2 will see the individual infrastructure platforms extended and integrated into the HBP Joint Platform (HBP-JP). The JP will make HBP services more robust and improve the user experience, encouraging wider use of its tools. SGA2 should thus see a shift from supplier-driven to user-driven capabilities, while the infrastructure underpinning them will be tied closely into EU efforts to integrate and stre
Field of science
- /natural sciences/computer and information sciences/artificial intelligence
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
H2020-SGA-FETFLAG-HBP-2017
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
SGA-RIA - SGA-RIACoordinator
1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
Participants (115)
02150 Espoo
2333 ZA Leiden
11251 Athens
08034 Barcelona
99423 Weimar
42119 Wuppertal
91904 Jerusalem
CF24 ODE Cardiff
75794 Paris
75015 Paris 15
00185 Roma
40033 Casalecchio Di Reno Bo
2800 Kgs Lyngby
4032 Debrecen
LE1 9BH Leicester
75230 Paris Cedex 05
8092 Zuerich
2650 Hvidovre
52428 Julich
80805 Munchen
80686 Munchen
1400-038 Lisboa
40225 Dusseldorf
00014 Helsingin Yliopisto
69118 Heidelberg
1011 Lausanne
SW7 2AZ London
75013 Paris
1083 Budapest
3400 Klosterneuburg
1000 Ljubljana
78153 Le Chesnay Cedex
75724 Paris Cedex 15
60323 Frankfurt Am Main
76131 Karlsruhe
17177 Stockholm
WC2R 2LS London
100 44 Stockholm
50019 Sesto-fiorentino (Fi)
35195 Vaxjo
6020 Innsbruck
10561 Athina
1433 As
1010 Wien
52062 Aachen
69117 Heidelberg
34956 Tuzla Istanbul
56127 Pisa
3526 KV Utrecht
6525 EZ Nijmegen
76131 Karlsruhe
731 00 Chania
01069 Dresden
8010 Graz
80333 Muenchen
69978 Tel Aviv
OX1 2JD Oxford
91904 Jerusalem
AB24 3FX Aberdeen
EH8 9YL Edinburgh
M13 9PL Manchester
28049 Madrid
13071 Ciudad Real
18071 Granada
4704 553 Braga
28040 Madrid
28933 Mostoles
27100 Pavia
3012 Bern
33615 Bielefeld
52074 Aachen
20251 Hamburg
8006 Zurich
08007 Barcelona
08002 Barcelona
13284 Marseille
33000 Bordeaux
2000 Antwerpen
0313 Oslo
WC1E 6BT London
751 05 Uppsala
7610001 Rehovot
64289 Darmstadt
1211 Geneve
G12 8QQ Glasgow
20148 Hamburg
10117 Berlin
1011 JV Amsterdam
00044 Frascati
08036 Barcelona
20122 Milano
08028 Barcelona
00161 Roma
4000 Liege
1012WX Amsterdam
53127 Bonn
S10 2TN Sheffield
BS16 1QY Bristol
GU2 7XH Guildford
33100 Tampere
LS2 9JT Leeds
75006 Paris
BN1 9RH Brighton
NW4 4BT London
69622 Villeurbanne Cedex
10129 Torino
9000 Gent
3000 Leuven
4051 Basel
1081 HV Amsterdam
1206 Geneve
00161 Roma
56126 Pisa
6200 MD Maastricht
AL10 9AB Hatfield