Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HBP SGA3 (Human Brain Project Specific Grant Agreement 3)
Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-09-30
For SGA3, we reorganised into fewer, more integrated Work Packages, and introduced new participants and capabilities. SGA3 sharpens focus, to ensure a lasting HBP legacy of advances in brain science, contributions to brain medicine and foundations for brain-related technology, helping European citizens to lead longer, healthier and more productive lives. The HBP laid the base for empowering neuroscientists to approach the big challenge of unifying understanding of the different spatial and temporal scales of brain organisation, using state-of-the-art neuroinformatics, simulation, neuromorphic computing, neurorobotics, high-performance analytics and supercomputing. The HBP is pioneering digital brain research, that uses computing to analyse data, offering a broad range of software tools through the EBRAINS research infrastructure. SGA3 objectives:
1) Establish the EBRAINS research infrastructure, leading to increased use of FAIR data, web-based analyses, model building, simulation, atlasing and virtual experiments for brain research.
2) Provide a multi-level atlas of the human brain - the first of its kind that links microstructural detail and inter-subject variability.
3) Increase capacity for multiscale neural activity modelling of the human brain network.
4) Increase the availability of integrated multiscale data and computational models supporting brain states transitions, network complexity and cognitive functions.
5) Enhance real-world task performance through biologically plausible, adaptive, cognitive architectures running on neuromorphic hardware and a closed-loop Neurorobotics Platform.
6) Ensure that neuroscientific insights at the interface of neuro-inspired computing and technology are being translated into a benefit for patients with brain diseases.
7) Ensure an ethically and legally compliant infrastructure and promote embedding of Responsible Research and Innovation, and of neuro- and data ethics in EBRAINS.
1) Establish the EBRAINS research infrastructure, leading to increased use of FAIR data, web-based analyses, model building, simulation, atlasing and virtual experiments for brain research.
2) Provide a multi-level atlas of the human brain - the first of its kind that links microstructural detail and inter-subject variability.
3) Increase capacity for multiscale neural activity modelling of the human brain network.
4) Increase the availability of integrated multiscale data and computational models supporting brain states transitions, network complexity and cognitive functions.
5) Enhance real-world task performance through biologically plausible, adaptive, cognitive architectures running on neuromorphic hardware and a closed-loop Neurorobotics Platform.
6) Ensure that neuroscientific insights at the interface of neuro-inspired computing and technology are being translated into a benefit for patients with brain diseases.
7) Ensure an ethically and legally compliant infrastructure and promote embedding of Responsible Research and Innovation, and of neuro- and data ethics in EBRAINS.
The HBP achieved its SGA3 objectives. Our EBRAINS research infrastructure (RI) improved access to and storage of high-quality data, facilitating reuse of data by other researchers, and increased the performance of its multi-scale, multi modal brain atlases, which correlate data with their place of origin in the brain. Brain modelling and simulation, closed-loop neurorobotics and brain-related AI capabilities were all extended. The new Human Intracranial EEG Platform (HIP) is operational and populated with data, the new EBRAINS Health Data Cloud was launched and the Medical Informatics Platform (MIP) deployed in more hospitals. Integration of the 65 main tools was improved, simplifying RI operation and maintenance. Our High-Level Support Team helped more researchers inside and outside the HBP to exploit EBRAINS tools productively. The EBRAINS’ distributed ICT base infrastructure was strengthened, for robust access to high-performance, cloud and neuromorphic computing facilities, data storage and our online collaborative work environment.
On the scientific side, the HBP increased multiscale brain modelling capacity and made available more complex models exploring brain state transitions and cognitive functions, allowing cognitive architectures to be run on neuromorphic computers and the neurorobotics platform. We also supported practical exploitation of HBP-derived knowledge and technologies, contributed to the ethical framework for work exploring cognition and consciousness, and improved gender balance in our governance.
Six scientific “Showcases” demonstrated how HBP researchers could advance multiple key brain research areas with the help of EBRAINS tools. New research teams, including top European neuroscientists, brought in via open calls, confirmed that the broader neuroscience community can benefit from and contribute to EBRAINS. Other calls allowed medical and technically oriented SMEs to advance brain-related applications with HBP resources.
On the scientific side, the HBP increased multiscale brain modelling capacity and made available more complex models exploring brain state transitions and cognitive functions, allowing cognitive architectures to be run on neuromorphic computers and the neurorobotics platform. We also supported practical exploitation of HBP-derived knowledge and technologies, contributed to the ethical framework for work exploring cognition and consciousness, and improved gender balance in our governance.
Six scientific “Showcases” demonstrated how HBP researchers could advance multiple key brain research areas with the help of EBRAINS tools. New research teams, including top European neuroscientists, brought in via open calls, confirmed that the broader neuroscience community can benefit from and contribute to EBRAINS. Other calls allowed medical and technically oriented SMEs to advance brain-related applications with HBP resources.
EBRAINS serves a broad research community. It now has some 8,500 returning users (of whom a quarter are data contributors), from 1,500 institutions (the HBP funded c.500 researchers at any time, from 155 institutions). RI users can access 1,000+ datasets (some of them complex, from c.2,100 contributors), 250 curated models and 200+ software tools, of which 160+ were developed in-project. EBRAINS’ 65 main tools are integrated, allowing use of multiple techniques to investigate a particular subject. Its Knowledge Graph and curation service are key supports for the Open Science goal of making results findable and reusable. Its multilevel 3D atlases of human, monkey and rodent brains provide a powerful basis for better understanding of brain organisation, more representative brain models and investigation of disease mechanisms. EBRAINS supports brain modelling and simulation with a full suite of engines covering the molecular, cellular, brain region and whole brain levels, plus the ability to combine them in co-simulations, to explore the effect of local phenomena on the rest of the brain. EBRAINS brain simulations can now be better coupled with a new-architecture neurorobotics platform to replicate interaction between brain, body and environment, key for optimising and training neural networks. EBRAINS’ suite of health-related data and analytical solutions has been expanded to cover EEG data (HIP) as well as brain image data (MIP), while the Health Data Cloud provides a means of sharing a broad range of sensitive patient data in compliance with GDPR. EBRAINS is recommended as a data repository by the journals Nature Scientific Data and Frontiers in Neuroinformatics.
The HBP’s transformational digital neuroscience approach has advanced understanding of the brain, which is feeding into societal benefits. In SGA3, it achieved 1,209 publications for a grand total of 3,137 over the 10-year project. Of its 76 Partnering Projects, 13 Partnering Projects were led by institutions outside Europe, confirming the HBP’s global stature. Practical applications of HBP research include: use of brain simulation to guide surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy; electrical stimulation of the spinal cord to allow paralysed patients to walk again; an implant which can restore vision in the blind; a technique for revealing hidden levels of consciousness in coma patients; and a number of patented drug candidates. The MIP is now deployed in 60 hospitals across Europe and the new HIP is already used in 10. In the HBP’s Education Programme, 1,300 lecturers provided teaching and training in EBRAINS tools to 5,500 participants, bequeathing a legacy of 700 educational videos. The HBP acquired 40,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 70,000 on LinkedIn, plus 4,000 subscribers to its newsletter. The HBP website attracted 15,000 visitors per month and 5,000 people participated in its community discussions.
HBP researchers filed 92 patent applications in 15 jurisdictions and were granted 12. They created 12 start-up companies to exploit their results, with 4 more planned, and engaged in more than 40 industrial collaborations with corporate partners including BMW, Dassault Systèmes and Intel. A total of 19 companies were directly involved in the project as HBP consortium partners. A dedicated HBP Innovation Team helped project researchers to prepare market analyses and exploitation plans, by organising training courses and a fundraising boot camp and via an innovation newsletter and award scheme.
The HBP’s transformational digital neuroscience approach has advanced understanding of the brain, which is feeding into societal benefits. In SGA3, it achieved 1,209 publications for a grand total of 3,137 over the 10-year project. Of its 76 Partnering Projects, 13 Partnering Projects were led by institutions outside Europe, confirming the HBP’s global stature. Practical applications of HBP research include: use of brain simulation to guide surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy; electrical stimulation of the spinal cord to allow paralysed patients to walk again; an implant which can restore vision in the blind; a technique for revealing hidden levels of consciousness in coma patients; and a number of patented drug candidates. The MIP is now deployed in 60 hospitals across Europe and the new HIP is already used in 10. In the HBP’s Education Programme, 1,300 lecturers provided teaching and training in EBRAINS tools to 5,500 participants, bequeathing a legacy of 700 educational videos. The HBP acquired 40,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 70,000 on LinkedIn, plus 4,000 subscribers to its newsletter. The HBP website attracted 15,000 visitors per month and 5,000 people participated in its community discussions.
HBP researchers filed 92 patent applications in 15 jurisdictions and were granted 12. They created 12 start-up companies to exploit their results, with 4 more planned, and engaged in more than 40 industrial collaborations with corporate partners including BMW, Dassault Systèmes and Intel. A total of 19 companies were directly involved in the project as HBP consortium partners. A dedicated HBP Innovation Team helped project researchers to prepare market analyses and exploitation plans, by organising training courses and a fundraising boot camp and via an innovation newsletter and award scheme.