On 9 June, the Berlin Institute of Health at Charite University Hospital (BIH; Germany) announced that the eBRAIN-Health project has been awarded funding through the Horizon Europe research and innovation framework programme. eBRAIN-Health will be coordinated by Prof. Petra Ritter, BIH Johanna Quandt Professor of Brain Simulation and Head of the Brain Simulation research group at BIH, and Head of Charité’s Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurology.
eBRAIN-Health aims to develop a decentralised, privacy-compliant research platform that simulates complex neurobiological phenomena of the brain, including the processes that drive the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The project involves 20 partners, including Alzheimer Europe, and EBRAINS AISBL, the coordinating body of the EU flagship Human Brain Project. The project is due to be launched in July and will run for four years, with a total budget of almost 13 million EUR. A variety of information will be brought together for the research platform. This information includes brain imaging studies, behavioural studies and lifestyle surveys, as well as clinical data from thousands of patients and healthy controls.
The data is combined with biological information from knowledge databases and made available for research purposes. The resulting "digital twins" of the brain will allow a large number of researchers to conduct innovative research within a powerful digital platform. In addition, the complex, individualised brain simulations have the potential to improve our understanding of brain function and disease; improve diagnosis and risk prediction, and optimise potential therapies.
Project coordinator Professor Petra Ritter welcomed the funding by the Infrastructure Program of the European Commission: "We are pleased that our consortium has been trusted by the European Commission to develop a European infrastructure for health data…the approval of this new major project recognises our contribution in the EU Flagship Human Brain Project for the development of cloud services for sensitive health data. These developments will contribute to the establishment of the European Health Data Space - an important pillar of future health research in Europe."
