In a landmark initiative, international neuroscientists convened to define EBRAINS’s trajectory for the next decade. As Europe’s premier neuroscience infrastructure launched in 2019, EBRAINS hosted a symposium to finalize its strategic direction through a crowdsourced approach involving 139 proposals across five key themes. These discussions centered on financial sustainability, toolkit integration, and societal impact, highlighted by Viktor Jirsa, EBRAINS’s chief scientific officer, who emphasized the project’s departure from its predecessor, the Human Brain Project (HBP). Unlike the HBP’s centralized, ambitious simulation goals, EBRAINS adopts a decentralized model focused on democratizing access to neuroscience resources.
While the predecessor secured €600 million over a decade, EBRAINS plans to seek €32 million from the European Commission in 2024, though its budget remains significantly smaller. EBRAINS’s co-chief executive, Katrin Amunts, stressed the need for multi-source funding, including national and global partners in the US, Japan, and China, to sustain its eight work packages spanning brain atlases, data standards, and computational tools.
The platform’s web interface hosts over 280 toolkits and datasets, including high-resolution atlases for human and rodent brains. Researchers like Ingvilde Bjerke, a postdoctoral neuroscientist, leverage these resources to adapt adult brain models for developmental studies, streamlining analysis through EBRAINS’s integrated tools. Another key asset is Neurosift, a browser-based application supporting Neurodata Without Borders (NWB) standards, which simplifies data sharing across labs.
Collaboration beyond Europe defines EBRAINS’s strength, noted Kris Bouchard from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. However, Simon McMullan, an integrative neuroscientist, highlighted gaps in cross-tool accessibility, envisioning EBRAINS as a unified data hub. His AI tool, DeepSlice, automates histology data alignment with EBRAINS atlases, underscoring the platform’s potential as a centralized research resource.
EBRAINS’s funding strategy includes tiered pricing models to attract industry and clinical users. A debate emerged on whether to prioritize fundamental research or clinical translation, with EBRAINS’s leader, Jirsa, arguing both approaches are complementary. Following the symposium, a writing group will consolidate feedback into a strategic roadmap, aiming to balance accessibility with high-impact translational projects.
