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The Human Brain Project (HBP) was a ten-year European Commission Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship initiative aimed at integrating modern neurobiology, clinical medicine, and high-performance computing. Running from October 2013 through September 2023, the flagship mobilized more than 150 partner institutions across 19 countries with over €400 million in direct European Union financial contributions. The project’s primary enduring legacy is EBRAINS, an open digital research infrastructure integrated into the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap that provides multi-scale digital brain models, brain atlases, and computing platforms for the global neuroscience community.
What It Is and Who Runs It
The Human Brain Project was launched by the European Commission in 2013 under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) as one of the European Union’s flagship “mega-science” investments, alongside the Graphene Flagship. Conceived initially by neuroscientist Henry Markram at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the program set out to build multi-scale biological simulations of the human brain on supercomputers.
Over its decadelong operational lifecycle, the project evolved into an open European research platform. Following an extensive governance restructuring in 2015, leadership transitioned toward distributed scientific steering led by Scientific Research Director Katrin Amunts (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and a governing coordination entity. In its final phase, coordination was transferred to EBRAINS AISBL (an international non-profit association based in Brussels, Belgium) to ensure the sustainable long-term operation of the infrastructure after the flagship grant concluded.
Governance and Consortium Structure
Administering a consortium of more than 500 scientists across dozens of European universities required an intricate governance framework consisting of distinct operational bodies:
- Stakeholder Board: Representatives from national funding agencies and participating European member states responsible for aligning project goals with national scientific roadmaps and co-funding commitments.
- Directorate and Scientific Coordination: Led by the Scientific Research Director, the Directorate coordinated cross-cutting scientific work packages, resource allocations, and international collaborations.
- Science and Infrastructure Board (SIB): The operational steering body overseeing technical subprojects, milestones, infrastructure integration, and user-driven services.
- Ethics and Society Subproject: A dedicated, institutionalized research division responsible for evaluating Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles, dual-use risks, neuroethics, and data governance standards.
- EBRAINS AISBL: Created in 2019 to provide a permanent legal entity, headquarter European infrastructure operations, and transition the project into the ESFRI roadmap.
What It Funded and Delivered: EBRAINS Infrastructure
Rather than producing a single monolithic computer simulation of the entire brain, the Human Brain Project directed its capital investments into building EBRAINS—a federated digital neuroscience ecosystem comprising specialized scientific services:
1. High-Resolution Brain Atlases
The project developed the Julich-Brain cytoarchitectonic atlas, a 3D probabilistic map of human brain microarchitecture based on post-mortem histology. Hosted on EBRAINS, the multilevel atlas links microstructural cellular arrangements with macroscopic neuroimaging data, functional MRI coordinates, and spatial transcriptomics.
2. Brain Simulation and Multi-Scale Modeling
EBRAINS hosts simulation tools including The Virtual Brain (TVB), an open-source platform that constructs personalized, network-level brain models using patient structural connectivity matrices. It also provides cellular-level neural simulation engines such as NEST (for large networks of spiking neurons) and Arbor (for biophysically detailed dendritic morphologies).
3. Medical Informatics Platform (MIP)
Addressing strict European data privacy standards under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Medical Informatics Platform enables federated data querying across distributed clinical hospital networks. Researchers can run statistical machine-learning analyses across multiple clinical centers without transferring patient medical records outside their originating hospital boundaries.
4. Neuromorphic Computing Platforms
The project financed and deployed novel neuromorphic hardware architectures designed for brain-inspired energy-efficient computation: BrainScaleS (an analog physical-model neuromorphic wafer system located at Heidelberg University) and SpiNNaker (a digital many-core computing architecture located at the University of Manchester).
5. High-Performance Computing and Data Storage (Fenix Infrastructure)
Through the Fenix infrastructure, the project connected supercomputing centers across Europe (including BSC in Spain, CEA in France, CINECA in Italy, CSCS in Switzerland, and JSC in Germany), providing unified federated cloud storage and compute services compatible with BIDS neuroimaging standards.
Application, Access, and User Mechanisms
Researchers worldwide can access EBRAINS tools and datasets under an open-access model designed for academic and industrial investigators:
- User Account Registration: Scientists create a verified EBRAINS account via the central portal at ebrains.eu. European academic accounts authenticate through standard institutional federation protocols (eduGAIN).
- Find and Access Data: Curated datasets, histological atlases, and software tools are indexed in the EBRAINS Knowledge Graph, providing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) search across biological modalities.
- Compute and Storage Allocations: Access to standard online web tools and atlases is free and open. Researchers requiring high-performance supercomputing or neuromorphic hardware submit compute project proposals through competitive peer-reviewed calls managed by PRACE and Fenix.
- Data Sharing and Publishing: External neuroscience groups can share and publish curated datasets through the EBRAINS Data Curation service, which ensures compliance with ethics regulations, licensing terms, and metadata formatting.
Timeline Phases and Evolution
The Human Brain Project progressed through four sequential grant agreements funded under the European Union’s research framework programs:
Ramp-Up Phase (FP7, Grant 604102: 2013–2016)
Funded under the 7th Framework Programme with approximately €54 million in initial EU contributions, this phase established the foundational consortium infrastructure, consortium bylaws, and initial software prototypes. It was characterized by debate regarding its initial focus on whole-brain simulation.
Specific Grant Agreement 1 (SGA1, Horizon 2020, Grant 720270: 2016–2018)
Operating under Horizon 2020 with approximately €89 million in EU funding, SGA1 executed the recommendations of an independent mediation process, instituting a democratic governance model, expanding cognitive neuroscience subprojects, and focusing directly on building unified infrastructure platforms.
Specific Grant Agreement 2 (SGA2, Horizon 2020, Grant 785907: 2018–2020)
With an EU contribution of €88 million, SGA2 consolidated six separate technological platforms into the single, unified EBRAINS infrastructure portal and incorporated user co-design projects.
Specific Grant Agreement 3 (SGA3, Horizon 2020, Grant 945539: 2020–2023)
The final phase, backed by €150 million in EU funding and coordinated by EBRAINS AISBL, operated through September 30, 2023. SGA3 brought the core scientific work streams to fruition across brain networks, consciousness, brain disorders, and high-performance computing, transitioning EBRAINS into a permanent, self-sustaining European research infrastructure. Since 2024, the infrastructure continues its development under Horizon Europe as the EBRAINS 2.0 initiative.
Mega-Science Pitfalls and Governance Lessons
The administrative trajectory of the Human Brain Project offers essential lessons for academic institutions and research administrators coordinating large-scale collaborative grants, such as those funded through the Kavli Foundation model:
- Beware Overly Narrow Technological Visions: Mega-grants must avoid tethering multi-hundred-million-euro budgets to a single speculative scientific methodology. The initial promise of complete in silico whole-brain simulation faced substantial skepticism from the broader neurobiology community, leading to a public petition in 2014 signed by hundreds of neuroscientists.
- Implement Transparent Mediation Early: The HBP’s successful survival and delivery hinged on independent mediation in 2015, which restructured executive leadership, decentralized decision-making, and redistributed funding toward peer-reviewed, competitive work packages.
- Prioritize General-Purpose Infrastructure: Shifting the project’s primary output from speculative simulation models to durable, open-access digital platforms (EBRAINS) ensured that European neuroscience institutions gained lasting shared assets, including validated atlases, federated medical networks, and high-performance computing pipelines.
- Institutionalize Ethics and Societal Impact: Embedding an autonomous Ethics and Society team within the grant architecture established best practices for addressing neuroethics, data privacy, and the dual-use implications of brain-inspired artificial intelligence.
Related Large-Scale Brain Initiatives
The Human Brain Project formed part of an international cohort of government-funded brain initiatives aimed at accelerating research into neural circuitry and neurological disorders across neurobiology and translational medicine.
| Initiative | Funding Agency / Sponsor | Primary Focus | Core Outputs | Operational Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human Brain Project (HBP) | European Commission (FP7 & Horizon 2020) | Digital neuroscience, brain simulation, supercomputing, brain atlases | EBRAINS digital infrastructure, Julich-Brain atlas, The Virtual Brain, neuromorphic systems | Decentralized European mega-consortium transitioning to permanent AISBL non-profit |
| US BRAIN Initiative | National Institutes of Health (NIH), NSF, DARPA, IARPA | Novel neurotechnology, high-resolution cell census, neural recording sensors | BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN), connectomic tools, advanced optogenetics | Distributed individual investigator and cooperative team grants administered across federal agencies |
| China Brain Project | Ministry of Science and Technology of China | Brain-inspired intelligence, neural mechanisms of cognition, disease diagnosis | Primate cognitive models, brain imaging facilities, neuro-inspired machine learning architectures | National central research programs and designated brain science research hubs |
| Brain/MINDS | AMED and MEXT (Japan) | Non-human primate brain mapping (common marmoset), trans-scale neural circuitry | Cellular marmoset connectome atlas, transgenic models of neurological diseases | Consortium centered around the RIKEN Center for Brain Science and university partners |
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Human Brain Project?
The Human Brain Project was a ten-year European Commission Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship project that operated from October 2013 to September 2023, integrating neuroscience, brain simulation, and supercomputing.
What happened to the Human Brain Project when it ended in 2023?
Upon concluding its ten-year flagship funding in September 2023, the project transitioned its permanent tools, brain atlases, and computing services into EBRAINS, an open-access European research infrastructure managed by EBRAINS AISBL in Brussels, Belgium.
How much funding did the Human Brain Project receive?
Over its four operational grant agreements, the European Commission contributed more than €400 million in direct funding, including a final €150 million allocation for Specific Grant Agreement 3 (SGA3) recorded in the European CORDIS database.
What is EBRAINS?
EBRAINS is Europe’s digital research infrastructure for brain science, recognized on the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap. It provides tools, the Julich-Brain 3D atlas, simulation engines (The Virtual Brain, NEST), federated medical querying, and supercomputing access.
Who led the Human Brain Project?
Originally initiated under Henry Markram at EPFL, the project was restructured in 2015 and led scientifically by Scientific Research Director Katrin Amunts of Forschungszentrum Jülich, with coordination managed in its final phase by EBRAINS AISBL.
Sources
- European Commission. “Human Brain Project Specific Grant Agreement 3 (Grant 945539).” CORDIS Project Database. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/945539 (read 2026-11-08).
- Human Brain Project Consortium. “Human Brain Project Overview and History.” https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/about/overview/ (read 2026-11-08).
- EBRAINS AISBL. “About EBRAINS Research Infrastructure.” https://ebrains.eu/about (read 2026-11-08).
- European Commission Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. “FET Flagships.” https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/fet-flagships (read 2026-11-08).
