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"The Human Brain Project" is Launched in Europe, with the Goal of Creating a Supercomputer-Based Simulation of the Human Brain

1/28/2013
The Human Brain Project website

Screenshot of the top portion of the home page of the The Human Brain Project showing categories of research.

On January 28, 2013 The European Commission announced funding for The Human Brain Project.

From the press release:

"The goal of the Human Brain Project is to pull together all our existing knowledge about the human brain and to reconstruct the brain, piece by piece, in supercomputer-based models and simulations. The models offer the prospect of a new understanding of the human brain and its diseases and of completely new computing and robotic technologies. On January 28, the European Commission supported this vision, announcing that it has selected the HBP as one of two projects to be funded through the new FET Flagship Program.

''Federating more than 80 European and international research institutions, the Human Brain Project is planned to last ten years (2013-2023). The cost is estimated at 1.19 billion euros. The project will also associate some important North American and Japanese partners. It will be coordinated at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, by neuroscientist Henry Markram with co-directors Karlheinz Meier of Heidelberg University, Germany, and Richard Frackowiak of Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL).

The Swiss Contribution

"Switzerland plays a vital role in the Human Brain Project. Henry Markram and his team at EPFL will coordinate the project and will also be responsible for the development and operation of the project’s Brain Simulation Platform. Richard Frackowiak and his team will be in charge of the project’s medical informatics platform; the Swiss Supercomputing Centre in Lugano will provide essential supercomputing facilities. Many other Swiss groups are also contributing to the project. Through the ETH Board, the Swiss Federal Government has allocated 75 million CHF (approximately 60 million Euros) for the period 2013-2017, to support the efforts of both Henry Markram’s laboratory at EPFL and the Swiss Supercomputing Center in Lugano. The Canton of Vaud will give 35 million CHF (28 million Euros) to build a new facility called Neuropolis for in silico life science, and centered around the Human Brain Project. This building will also be supported by the Swiss Confederation, the Rolex Group and third-party sponsors.

"The selection of the Human Brain Project as a FET Flagship is the result of more than three years of preparation and a rigorous and severe evaluation by a large panel of independent, high profile scientists, chosen by the European Commission. In the coming months, the partners will negotiate a detailed agreement with the Community for the initial first two and a half year ramp-up phase (2013-mid 2016). The project will begin work in the closing months of 2013."

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