Digital pan-European research infrastructure EBRAINS has been been included in the 2021 Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).
The development marks an important milestone for EBRAINS and a recognition of the sustainable scientific value of the research infrastructure designed by the EU-funded Human Brain Project teams.
EBRAINS’ mission is to be a major enabler to advance brain research covering different areas such as neuroscience, brain health and brain-inspired technology, and aims to contribute to significant scientific progress and innovation for the benefit of patients, industry and society as whole.
Science infrastructures included into the ESFRI Roadmap go through a thorough evaluation and selection procedure, taking both scientific excellence and implementation rigor into account.
ESFRI’s mission is to develop the scientific integration of Europe, to strengthen its international outreach, and to provide Europe with the most up-to-date research infrastructures, responding to the rapidly evolving science frontiers, also advancing the knowledge-based technologies and their extended use. One of the core objectives of ESFRI is to ensure that excellent scientists have access to Europe’s best research infrastructures irrespective of borders.
The EBRAINS open research infrastructure provides the scientific community with extensive high-quality data sets, atlases, modelling, computing and simulation tools, as well as access to the European High-Performance Computer network, allowing state-of-the-art brain research. It is the result of the work of dozens of multidisciplinary teams from more than 100 European academic institutions who have worked together and shared cutting-edge expertise during the ten-year Human Brain Project, which will continue to further develop EBRAINS until 2023.
EBRAINS will be a true pan-European infrastructure, organised around a central hub based in Brussels and national nodes spread across Europe and providing the various RI services and tools.
“We are delighted by this recognition of our work and proud to contribute a truly novel platform to the European Research Landscape,” says Prof. Katrin Amunts, the scientific research director of the Human Brain Project.
“EBRAINS was created to establish a new paradigm of neuroscience that is highly integrated with technology and computing. This is a core goal of the Human Brain Project. Only the great work of so many colleagues all over Europe made it possible. Together we continue to provide the community with more and more powerful tools to accelerate research.”
Pawel Swieboda, CEO of EBRAINS and director general of the Human Brain Project, says: “The inclusion of EBRAINS into the ESFRI Roadmap 2021 is a major achievement and a true recognition of the value EBRAINS brings to the European scientific community. This is the culmination of many years of very high-level research and development efforts of the Human Brain Project teams and I would like to thank them for their dedication and commitment.
“EBRAINS is an infrastructure at the service of the broader science community, and we look forward to having more and more researchers make the best use of it. We’re also eager to develop new collaborations and partnerships with innovative brain research initiatives or consortia supported by national and European funding.”
