Launched on 1 November 2018, the European Brain Council (EBC)-coordinated EU project The European Brain Research Area (EBRA), was designed to respond to the Horizon 2020 call SC1-HCO-10-2018, entitled ‘Coordinating European brain research and developing global initiatives’.
Aimed at reducing the fragmentation and duplication of research efforts and at fostering synergies through enhanced coordination of brain research efforts at the EU and global level, the EBRA project was created as a catalysing platform for brain research stakeholders (researchers, clinicians, patients, governments, funders and public institutions) to streamline and better co-ordinate brain research across Europe while fostering global initiatives.
The highly diversified nature of European public research represents a considerable obstacle in the European Research Area, especially in the field of brain research, where the complexity of brain imposes a coordinated research effort to advance the understanding of brain and its disorders.
The EU and its Member States have made considerable investments in brain research, leading to a significant increase of initiatives in this area, particularly under Horizon 2020. Although these initiatives have generated considerable amounts of knowledge and innovative approaches, more coordinated efforts to identify gaps and highlight priorities are needed, to combat the complexity of the challenge.
Over the next three years, the EBRA Consortium will work to align and better coordinate research strategies across European and global brain initiatives; facilitating the emergence of research projects in specific areas in active clusters, and providing support for effective collaboration. This includes enabling the sharing of data and access to research infrastructures; increasing the visibility of the brain research portfolio as a whole and promoting the uptake of EBRA results to key stakeholders.
The Consortium consists of the EBC membership, the Network of European funding for Neuroscience research (NEURON), Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) and the Human Brain Project (HBP).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 825348