Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HBP SGA3 (Human Brain Project Specific Grant Agreement 3)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-04-01 al 2021-12-31
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 overall progress of the scientific work in WP1, WP2 and WP3, focussing on the core scientific areas: brain networks, their role in consciousness and artificial neural networks, is remarkable. Delays in data collection in human studies and staff hiring due to Covid-19, are expected to be made up thanks to the 6-month extension of the Project. The HBP has brought in new Partners via an open call to research COVID-19 and its impact on brain and mental health. The new Lead Scientist Programme is running successfully. Scientific highlights are the SGA3 Showcases, which demonstrate significant progress in neuroscience, enabled by EBRAINS and are built on successful cross-WP collaborations.
The number of services for researchers displayed through the EBRAINS web portal has grown from six at the beginning of SGA3 to 25, with rich content, including documentation, tutorials, community interactions and support for users. The RI has been co-developed with researchers in the HBP and external users through the HLST and the 26 RI Voucher projects. The conceptual, logical and physical architectures of the EBRAINS RI have been revised as planned. New concepts, tools and instruments that facilitate the integration, FAIR-ness, standardisation, cost-effectiveness, observability, monitoring and overall sustainability of the EBRAINS RI have been developed and introduced. The growing range of services integrated in the EBRAINS RI offer FAIR data, atlases, analytical tools, advanced modelling and simulation, and neurorobotics capabilities to its users, with detailed description of software components (see D5.1 and D5.2).
We submitted or resubmitted 22 ethics Deliverables. A Task Force was established to transition RRI into EBRAINS. RRI training is offered to all EBRAINS users. With technologies maturing, HBP innovation has shifted gear. The innovation team is focusing more on the potential market and less inside the project. We successfully transferred the Coordinator’s role from EPFL to EBRAINS and implemented a COVID-related 6-month Project extension.
The number of services for researchers displayed through the EBRAINS web portal has grown from six at the beginning of SGA3 to 25, with rich content, including documentation, tutorials, community interactions and support for users. The RI has been co-developed with researchers in the HBP and external users through the HLST and the 26 RI Voucher projects. The conceptual, logical and physical architectures of the EBRAINS RI have been revised as planned. New concepts, tools and instruments that facilitate the integration, FAIR-ness, standardisation, cost-effectiveness, observability, monitoring and overall sustainability of the EBRAINS RI have been developed and introduced. The growing range of services integrated in the EBRAINS RI offer FAIR data, atlases, analytical tools, advanced modelling and simulation, and neurorobotics capabilities to its users, with detailed description of software components (see D5.1 and D5.2).
We submitted or resubmitted 22 ethics Deliverables. A Task Force was established to transition RRI into EBRAINS. RRI training is offered to all EBRAINS users. With technologies maturing, HBP innovation has shifted gear. The innovation team is focusing more on the potential market and less inside the project. We successfully transferred the Coordinator’s role from EPFL to EBRAINS and implemented a COVID-related 6-month Project extension.
The HBP has demonstrated impactful scientific progress. Six Showcases illustrate how EBRAINS enhances researchers’ capacity to interoperate data, methods, theory and data driven models, to solve difficult questions in basic and clinical research. New Partnering Projects are coming on board. We have developed new high-resolution methods to image the brain in exceptional detail that go beyond state-of-the-art and allow us to compare the connectomes of different species in great detail. We have generated the most detailed atlas yet of the human brain, with maps of more brain areas than ever identified before. Our researchers have developed a brain implant that will help blind people to see. It stimulates the visual cortex with high precision and has successfully induced visual perception in monkeys. Inspired by the human brain, HBP scientists have made artificial intelligence more efficient, developing and optimising powerful brain-based algorithms that demonstrate advantages over traditional deep-learning approaches.
The EBRAINS RI delivers data, tools and services to support FAIR, reproducible brain and brain-inspired research; providing curation, scalable metadata models, a Knowledge Graph and long-term cloud storage of heterogeneous data and models. Data are accessible with analytical tools and computing resources. Atlas services, linked to data, provide comprehensive multi-scale brain atlases with tools for registration of data, integration and analysis, not found elsewhere. Simulation services, from cellular level to whole brain, are available as cloud services, facilitating use of large data sets and reproducible workflows. Examples include the server-based NEST simulation engine, with NEST Desktop as the graphics front end, and The Virtual Brain and related tools for advancing treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy. Uniquely, EBRAINS offers Neurorobotics for online closed-loop embodied simulation of virtual agents, and Neuromorphic Computing for batch- and interactive spiking neural network simulation/emulation in real time and accelerated speed. The new EBRAINS web portal and Collaboratory open the RI to the broader research community. The RI Voucher scheme has increased uptake, with lead institutions in Australia, Canada, India, Japan and the USA. EBRAINS co-hosted the First Virtual Master Class on Brain Atlasing and Simulation Services with the International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO), and the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF).
The concept of Responsibility by Design was developed as the foundation of RRI in EBRAINS. A Capacity Development Plan is being implemented. The HBP has built on its AI Opinion to describe the way ethics are considered in AI-related work. The RI Voucher programme has brought 11 industrial Partners into the HBP and automotive industry interest in SpiNNaker 2 shows the potential of neurotechnology. Mapping of brain health and brain technology innovation players has identified 200 start-ups.
EBRAINS is now on the 2021 Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). With 10 Institutions declaring formally their intention to lead EBRAINS National Nodes, the EBRAINS Preparation Phase starts well.
The EBRAINS RI delivers data, tools and services to support FAIR, reproducible brain and brain-inspired research; providing curation, scalable metadata models, a Knowledge Graph and long-term cloud storage of heterogeneous data and models. Data are accessible with analytical tools and computing resources. Atlas services, linked to data, provide comprehensive multi-scale brain atlases with tools for registration of data, integration and analysis, not found elsewhere. Simulation services, from cellular level to whole brain, are available as cloud services, facilitating use of large data sets and reproducible workflows. Examples include the server-based NEST simulation engine, with NEST Desktop as the graphics front end, and The Virtual Brain and related tools for advancing treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy. Uniquely, EBRAINS offers Neurorobotics for online closed-loop embodied simulation of virtual agents, and Neuromorphic Computing for batch- and interactive spiking neural network simulation/emulation in real time and accelerated speed. The new EBRAINS web portal and Collaboratory open the RI to the broader research community. The RI Voucher scheme has increased uptake, with lead institutions in Australia, Canada, India, Japan and the USA. EBRAINS co-hosted the First Virtual Master Class on Brain Atlasing and Simulation Services with the International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO), and the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF).
The concept of Responsibility by Design was developed as the foundation of RRI in EBRAINS. A Capacity Development Plan is being implemented. The HBP has built on its AI Opinion to describe the way ethics are considered in AI-related work. The RI Voucher programme has brought 11 industrial Partners into the HBP and automotive industry interest in SpiNNaker 2 shows the potential of neurotechnology. Mapping of brain health and brain technology innovation players has identified 200 start-ups.
EBRAINS is now on the 2021 Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). With 10 Institutions declaring formally their intention to lead EBRAINS National Nodes, the EBRAINS Preparation Phase starts well.