EBRAINS serves a broad research community. It now has some 8,500 returning users (of whom a quarter are data contributors), from 1,500 institutions (the HBP funded c.500 researchers at any time, from 155 institutions). RI users can access 1,000+ datasets (some of them complex, from c.2,100 contributors), 250 curated models and 200+ software tools, of which 160+ were developed in-project. EBRAINS’ 65 main tools are integrated, allowing use of multiple techniques to investigate a particular subject. Its Knowledge Graph and curation service are key supports for the Open Science goal of making results findable and reusable. Its multilevel 3D atlases of human, monkey and rodent brains provide a powerful basis for better understanding of brain organisation, more representative brain models and investigation of disease mechanisms. EBRAINS supports brain modelling and simulation with a full suite of engines covering the molecular, cellular, brain region and whole brain levels, plus the ability to combine them in co-simulations, to explore the effect of local phenomena on the rest of the brain. EBRAINS brain simulations can now be better coupled with a new-architecture neurorobotics platform to replicate interaction between brain, body and environment, key for optimising and training neural networks. EBRAINS’ suite of health-related data and analytical solutions has been expanded to cover EEG data (HIP) as well as brain image data (MIP), while the Health Data Cloud provides a means of sharing a broad range of sensitive patient data in compliance with GDPR. EBRAINS is recommended as a data repository by the journals Nature Scientific Data and Frontiers in Neuroinformatics.
The HBP’s transformational digital neuroscience approach has advanced understanding of the brain, which is feeding into societal benefits. In SGA3, it achieved 1,209 publications for a grand total of 3,137 over the 10-year project. Of its 76 Partnering Projects, 13 Partnering Projects were led by institutions outside Europe, confirming the HBP’s global stature. Practical applications of HBP research include: use of brain simulation to guide surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy; electrical stimulation of the spinal cord to allow paralysed patients to walk again; an implant which can restore vision in the blind; a technique for revealing hidden levels of consciousness in coma patients; and a number of patented drug candidates. The MIP is now deployed in 60 hospitals across Europe and the new HIP is already used in 10. In the HBP’s Education Programme, 1,300 lecturers provided teaching and training in EBRAINS tools to 5,500 participants, bequeathing a legacy of 700 educational videos. The HBP acquired 40,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 70,000 on LinkedIn, plus 4,000 subscribers to its newsletter. The HBP website attracted 15,000 visitors per month and 5,000 people participated in its community discussions.
HBP researchers filed 92 patent applications in 15 jurisdictions and were granted 12. They created 12 start-up companies to exploit their results, with 4 more planned, and engaged in more than 40 industrial collaborations with corporate partners including BMW, Dassault Systèmes and Intel. A total of 19 companies were directly involved in the project as HBP consortium partners. A dedicated HBP Innovation Team helped project researchers to prepare market analyses and exploitation plans, by organising training courses and a fundraising boot camp and via an innovation newsletter and award scheme.
