STOA WorkshopUNDERSTANDINGTHE HUMAN BRAINA new era of bigneuroscienceParticipants' booklet

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research ServiceScientific Foresight Unit (STOA)

PE 581.930

STOA workshop

UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BRAINA new era of big neuroscience

Participants' booklet

29 November 2016, 14:30 - 17:00European Parliament, Brussels

Henry Spaak building, room 7C050

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Prepared by James TARLTON, STOA Secretariat

Available at:http://www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/cms/home/workshops/neuroscience2016

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Contents

1 Programme.................................................................................................................................... 4

2 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 5

3 The Human Brain Project (HBP) initiative................................................................................ 6

4 The research through advancing innovative neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative ......... 7

5 Brain mapping by integrated neurotechnologies for diseases studies (BRAIN/MINDS)project............................................................................................................................................. 8

6 Chair ............................................................................................................................................... 9

Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ, MEP & STOA Chair................................................................................. 9

7 Moderator .................................................................................................................................... 10

Maurizio CORBETTA, University of Padova, Italy................................................................... 10

8 Speakers ....................................................................................................................................... 11

8.1 Roberto VIOLA, DG CNECT, European Commission.................................................. 11

8.2 Katrin AMUNTS, Chair of the Human Brain Project ................................................... 12

8.3 Walter KOROSHETZ, Co-Chair of the NIH BRAIN Initiative ................................... 13

8.4 Tetsuo YAMAMORI, Vice Project Leader of the the BRAIN/MINDS Project ........ 14

8.5 Ruxandra DRAGHIA-AKLI, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission.. 15

8.6 Rainer GOEBEL, Maastricht University, Netherlands.................................................. 16

9 The Human Brain Project – Exhibition.................................................................................... 17

10 About STOA................................................................................................................................ 18

10.1 Mission................................................................................................................................. 18

10.2 Administration.................................................................................................................... 19

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1 PROGRAMME

Chair: Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ, MEP & STOA Vice-Chair

Moderator: Maurizio CORBETTA, University of Padova, Italy

14:30-14:35 Welcome

Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ, MEP & STOA Vice-Chair

14:35-14:45 Introduction

Roberto VIOLA, DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology, European Commission

14:45-15:45 Presentations

Katrin AMUNTS, Jülich Research Centre, Germany

The EU's Human Brain Project (HBP) Flagship

Walter KOROSHETZ, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), USA

The U.S. Brain Research though Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative

Tetsuo YAMAMORI, Keio University, Japan

The Japan's Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/MINDS) Project

15:45-16:55 Panel discussion and Q&A

Katrin AMUNTS, Jülich Research Centre, Germany

Walter KOROSHETZ, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), USA

Tetsuo YAMAMORI, Riken Brain Science Institute, Japan

Ruxandra DRAGHIA-AKLI, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission

Rainer GOEBEL, Maastricht University, Netherlands

16:55-17:00 Conclusion

Evžen TOŠENOVSKÝ, MEP & STOA Vice-Chair

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2 INTRODUCTION

Understanding the human brain remains one of the greatest scientific challenges of ourcentury. New equipment and tools for visualising and recording neurons and neural circuitsare enabling deeper insight into how the human brain processes information and guidesbehaviour. New ICT technologies are also offering the opportunities for neuroscientists toshare large datasets and bring to their field the benefits of big data and simulation.

Building on these developments we are now on the verge of a fundamental leap towards theunderstanding of the brain driven by the launch of three large-scale brain research initiativesin Europe, the United States and Japan, over the last three years.

The EU's Human Brain Project (HBP) Flagship

This is a 10 year-long, €1 billion research initiative launched in 2013 by the EuropeanCommission's Future and Emerging Technology branch. HBP is building a world-class ICTresearch infrastructure for neuroscience, brain medicine, and brain-inspired computingtechnologies to enable researchers to model and simulate the human brain.

The Flagship includes strong neuroscience research components aiming at filling critical gapsfor modelling the structure and functioning of the brain and at refining and validating theinfrastructure functionalities.

The U.S. BRAIN (Brain Research though Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies)Initiative

BRAIN was launched in 2013 with a budget of €4.5 billion for 12 years. It is focussing on thedevelopment of new technologies for recording brain circuit activity and mapping the brainin unprecedented detail.

The Japan's Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies(Brain/MINDS) Project

This is a 10 year-long, €300 million research project that was launched at the end of 2014. Itaims to use transgenic mice and marmosets to understand the cellular and circuit basis ofbehaviour and as models of human brain diseases.

These three major research initiatives have bold and complementary ambitions, and involvethousands of neuroscience researchers. They are opening a new era of big (neuro)science, withsignificant implications for health and society.

The STOA workshop

During the STOA workshop, key leading representatives will present an overview of the threeinitiatives, their status, achievements, opportunities for cooperation, and future plans.

The workshop will include a panel discussion where panellists will discuss opportunities forinternational collaboration in neuroscience research and the benefits that such research willbring to individual citizens and society as a whole.

Additionally, an exhibition of the Human Brain Project has been organised at the EuropeanParliament for today and tomorrow, on the 5th floor of the G area.

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3 THE HUMAN BRAIN PROJECT (HBP) FLAGSHIP

Decoding the human brain is one of the most exciting challenges in 21 century. The HumanBrain Project (HBP) is a 10-year multi-national European initiative for brain research, toadvance neuroscience and medicine, and to create brain-inspired information technology. TheHBP is funded by the European Commission Directorate General for CommunicationsNetworks, Content & Technology (DG CONNECT) in the framework of the EU’s Horizon2020research funding programme and is one of the first two Future and Emerging Technologies(FET) Flagship projects. These were conceived to allow the European Union to support larger,longer-term research efforts, with a view to generating significant innovation, which wouldbenefit citizens in Europe and further afield.

Taming the brain’s complexity requires the development of a cutting-edge ICT-based scientificresearch infrastructure. Its data and computing services enable researchers to deal with themost complex challenges of neuroscience, medicine, and brain-inspired informationtechnology. This infrastructure offers cloud-based collaboration and six ICT platforms withdatabases, workflow systems, petabyte storage, and supercomputers. At the end of the firstphase of the project in early 2016, the HBP released initial versions of the ICT Platforms to theinternational science community: the Neuroinformatics Platform, the Brain SimulationPlatform, the High Performance Analytics and Computing Platform, the Medical InformaticsPlatform, the Neuromorphic Computing Platform and the Neurorobotics Platform. ThesePlatforms are being further developed in a co-design effort with neuroscientists, who are alsothe first adopters of their services.

It is a central tenet of the HBP strategy that a comprehensive understanding of the brainrequires deep insight into structure and function across all levels of brain organisation – fromgenes to the whole brain. To achieve this, interdisciplinary expertise joining neuroscience,computer science, informatics, physics and mathematics is key. A massive scientificcollaboration is required to reconstruct the required multi-level models. Modern ICT means,such as the Internet and open-source software communities, have been shown to permit themassive collaborative efforts that are needed.

Therefore, the underlying paradigm of the HBP is to harness a broad toolbox of the mostadvanced IT, including cloud-based collaboration and development platforms, with databasesfor metadata and provenance tracking, as well as data analytics, compute services, robotics,and leading-edge supercomputers and neuromorphic systems. This toolbox is necessary forcarrying out the challenging task of decoding the human brain, which involves thedevelopment of advanced software supporting “Big Data”-dominated analytics and high-endsimulation at all levels of brain organisation, starting from the acquisition of data in the lab.The HBP aims to integrate all of these inputs and catalyse a community effort.

In this respect, the HBP is predestined to establish itself as the European collaboration, sharingof data and tools, and exchanging of ideas which are central to the approach of the HBP.

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4 THE RESEARCH THROUGH ADVANCING INNOVATIVENEUROTECHNOLOGIES (BRAIN) INITIATIVE

The human brain is an amazingly complex computational organ with information flowing onelectrochemical gradients and processed by chemical neurotransmission at trillions ofsynapses. The investigators participating in the US BRAIN Initiative are opening technologicaldoors to enhance our understanding of how information is encoded and processed in braincircuits. Federal investment in the BRAIN Initiative has more than quadrupled, from some$100 million for 2014, to a proposed $434 million–plus in 2017. Its reach now encompasses sixfederal agencies – including the Department of Energy, joining this year – as well as privatefunders (such as Google, GE and The Kavli Foundation, the Simons Foundation, HowardHughes Medical Institute, Allen Brain Institute and multiple universities).

The tools and technologies already emerging from the Initiative will help drive brain researchin the 21st century and allow researchers to grapple with the driving questions in the field,such as the search for a theory to explain how neural activity is processed at multiple temporaland spatial scales to enable the wide scope of brain functions and behaviours.

The BRAIN Initiative is focused on accelerating the development and application of innovativetechnologies, to enable researchers to produce a revolutionary new dynamic picture of thebrain that, for the first time, shows how individual cells and complex neural circuits interactin both time and space. Long desired by researchers seeking new ways to treat, cure, and evenprevent brain disorders, this picture will fill major gaps in our current knowledge and provideunprecedented opportunities for exploring exactly how the brain enables the human body torecord, process, utilise, store, and retrieve vast quantities of information, all at the speed ofthought.

Ongoing projects include developing an in-depth classification of brain cells and inventingnew means of invasively and non-invasively interrogating and modulating brain circuitactivity. Great challenges lie ahead as the complexity of brain circuitry extends across multiplespatial scales, from the information processing that goes on in a single neuron, to theinteractions with its diverse neighbours, to the network activity that involves near and farnuclei. In addition, the dynamic brain circuit activity occurs at multiple time scales that canstretch from milliseconds and change over days and even years. This circuit activity isintegrated into a constantly changing sensory environment for the purpose of enabling theorganism’s universe of behaviours.

The BRAIN Initiative projects are positioned to provide tools for studies at various pointsalong these spatial, temporal, and behavioural scales. The first set of three-year projectsspurred the formation of interdisciplinary research teams to attack major technologicalchallenges.

NIH welcomes input on the plans for BRAIN’s next phases and enthusiastically looks forwardto coordinating the activities with Europe’s Human Brain Project.

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5 BRAIN MAPPING BY INTEGRATED NEUROTECHNOLOGIES FORDISEASES STUDIES (BRAIN/MINDS) PROJECT

The Brain/MINDS project based in Japan focuses on marmosets as model systems for studieson neural circuits, connections and diseases in the primate research. Marmosets have severalmerits in the research for primates. They are relatively small and easy to handle, and have highreproduction ability. Germline transmittable transgenic marmosets and gene knock-outmarmosets have been developed.

The Brain/MINDS project can contribute to the worldwide effort of brain mapping byproviding infrastructure for the study of marmosets and by bridging between the brainmapping projects on mice and human beings.

Toward this goal, there are three major projects. Projects A and B are being conducted as thecore institute of the projects in RIKEN; Project C aims at contributing to clinical applications.

Project A: Marmoset Brain Mapping (Project leader: Hideyuki Okano, RIKEN/Keio). Thisproject is a set of connectomes at macro (MRI), meso (tracer), and nano (electron microscope)levels to combine these sets of information with animal disease models.

Project B: Innovative Technology (Project leader: Atsushi Miyawaki, RIKEN), which aims atdeveloping new technologies that are required for structural and functional brain mapsincluding informatics needed for the projects.

Project C: Clinical Research Group (Project leader: Kiyoto Kasai, University of Tokyo). Thisproject is organised by a variety of clinical scientists to bridge the core projects and clinicalstudies. In collaboration with the two core projects, it is expected that this project cancontribute to understanding the mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric diseases andtreatment based on the information obtained by marmoset studies.

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6 CHAIR

EVŽEN TOŠENOVSKÝ, MEP & STOA VICE-CHAIR

Evžen Tošenovský is a member of the Committee onIndustry, Research and Energy and Vice-Chair of theScience and Technology Options Assessment Panel,and has been representing the Czech Republic in theEuropean Parliament since 2009. He was elected forthe Czech Civic Democratic Party as a member of theEuropean Conservatives and Reformist Group.

He is the chairman of the Management Board ofNational supercomputing centre (European centre ofexcellence), and the chairman of the Board of the Technical University of Ostrava and amember of the Board of the University of West Bohemia.

Evžen Tošenovský graduated from the Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of Economicswith a diploma in Systems Engineering and after his studies he worked for Vítkovice, a.s., aleading Czech engineering group. In 1993 he became the mayor of the City of Ostrava and heheld the office for a period of eight years. In the period of 1994 – 2001 he was the chairman ofthe Board of Mayors of the Czech Republic. During 2000 - 2008 he was the governor of theMoravian-Silesian Region and he served also as the chairman of the Association of Regions ofthe Czech Republic. Thanks to his efforts the regions in the Czech Republic began to beperceived as very strong and independent players within the country.

In 2009, he was elected and in 2014 re-elected to the European Parliament. As an expert in theengineering area he became the Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Industry, Research andEnergy in 2009-2014. His Committee activities focus mainly on EU space programmes, energypolicy, automotive industry and telecommunications. Since 2009, he has been representing theITRE Committee in the Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel – STOA, where hewas appointed Vice-Chair in 2014.

Furthermore, he is a member of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations withPeople’s Republic of China. He is also a substitute member of the Committee on Transport andTourism, the Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector,and the Delegation for relations with Switzerland and Norway.

Key message

STOA provides independent expert assessment of scientific and technological options invarious sectors, including the life sciences. The day-to-day work of STOA is to provide to theEuropean Parliament information on the impact of scientific developments and newtechnologies. Regarding today's workshop, I was always fascinated by our brain. We all havethe most sophisticated “computer” in the world located in our heads that is constantly beingdescribed, identified, and understood. It is extremely fascinating to explore the workings ofthe highest form of intelligence.

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7 MODERATOR

MAURIZIO CORBETTA

PROFESSOR AND CHAIR OF NEUROLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF NEUROSCIENCE,UNIVERSITY OF PADOVA, ITALY

Maurizio Corbetta is the former Norman J. Stupp Professorof Neurology, and Professor of Radiology, Anatomy andNeurobiology, and Bioengineering at WashingtonUniversity School of Medicine. From 2001 to 2016 he was theChief of the Division of Neuro-Rehabilitation, and Directorof Neurological Rehabilitation at Washington University.

As of October 1, 2016 he is Full Professor and Chair ofNeurology in the Department of Neuroscience at theUniversity of Padova, Italy. He is also the founding directorof the new Padova Neuroscience Center, a highly

interdisciplinary research programme centred on the idea of brain networks in health andsociety. Prof. Corbetta has pioneered experiments on the neural mechanisms of humanattention using Positron Emission Tomography (PET). He has discovered two brain networksdedicated to attention control, the dorsal and ventral attention networks, and developed abrain model of attention that has been cited in the literature more than 5,000 times. His clinicalwork has focused on the physiological correlates of focal injury. He has developed apathogenetic model of the syndrome of hemispatial neglect. He is currently developing novelmethods for studying the functional organisation of the brain using functional connectivityMRI, magneto-encephalography (MEG), and electro-corticography (EcoG). He is also workingon the effects of focal injuries on the network organisation of brain systems with an eye toneuromodulation.His research has been recognised with several awards including a HighlyCited Researchers award by Thompson Reuter based on the top 1% rate of citations in the lastdecade.

Key message

These are exciting times in Neuroscience. Tremendous progress has occurred in mappingdifferent cell types and local circuitries, and their developmental and genetic basis. There hasbeen also outstanding progress in mapping systems-level signals, both structurally andfunctionally, that underlie the architecture of the whole brain. Fundamental challenges remainin linking cellular, microcircuit, and whole brain levels of analysis, as well as in understandingthe relationship between metabolism, both locally and at the whole brain level, andneuronal/astrocytic activity. A key step toward integration of large data acquired at differentspatial and temporal resolutions is the development of biologically-realistic computationalmodels of central nervous system circuitries. In parallel to these fundamental efforts, there isurgent need of studies that take these concepts into the clinical area to understand and treatneurological and psychiatric conditions. An important challenge from a clinical standpoint isto develop a paradigm to integrate information about molecular or cellular defects thatunderlie some diseases vs. their effect on the circuitries of the brain.

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8 SPEAKERS

8.1 ROBERTO VIOLA

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF DG CONNECT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Roberto Viola is Director-General of DG CONNECT(Directorate General of Communication, Networks,Content and Technology) at the European Commission.He was the Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECTfrom 2012 to 2015.

Roberto Viola served as Chairman of the European RadioSpectrum Policy group (RSPG) from 2012 to 2013, asDeputy Chairman in 2011 and Chairman in 2010. He wasa member of the BEREC Board (Body of EuropeanTelecom Regulators), and Chairman of the EuropeanRegulatory Group (ERG).

He held the position of Secretary General in charge of managing AGCOM from 2005 to 2012.Prior to this, he served as Director of Regulation Department and Technical Director inAGCOM from 1999 to 2004. From 1985-1999 he served in various positions including as Headof Telecommunication and Broadcasting Satellite Services at the European Space Agency(ESA).

Roberto Viola holds a Doctorate in Electronic Engineering and a Masters in BusinessAdministration (MBA).

Key messageBetter understanding the brain and its diseases is a global challenge. The World HealthOrganization estimates that neurological disorders affect one billion people around the globe.The human brain is so complex that big science is needed to analyse and share the hugeamount of data collected at many scales from molecular to cognitive levels.

To address this challenge, in October 2013 the European Commission launched the HumanBrain Project (HBP). This is a 10 year, €1 billion research initiative building a world-classfederated ICT research infrastructure for neuroscience, brain medicine and future computingthat will enable researchers to model and simulate the human brain.

This initiative is based on a new partnering model with the Member States for long-termEuropean collaborative research in the context of the European Research Area (ERA), calledFlagship projects.

Many of the large national and regional brain research initiatives have objectives andapproaches complementary to HBP. Only by leveraging these complementarities and byengaging in international collaboration will the global scientific community be able to addressthe brain challenge. The European Commission is taking an active role in promoting suchcollaborations.

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8.2 KATRIN AMUNTS

CHAIR OF THE HUMAN BRAIN PROJECT

DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF NEUROSCIENCE AND MEDICINE, RESEARCHCENTRE JÜLICH, GERMANY

Katrin Amunts is chairing the Science andInfrastructure Board (SIB) of the European FET-Flagship consortium “The Human Brain Project”(HBP) since June 2016. As its scientific director, KatrinAmunts is also member of the Directorate of the HBP.In addition, she is leading Subproject 2 Human BrainOrganization.

Katrin Amunts graduated in medicine/biophysics,did her PhD in medicine and did her postdoctoralwork in the C. & O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research

at Düsseldorf University, Germany. In 1999, she set up a new research unit for Brain Mappingin the Research Centre Jülich. In 2004, she became a Professor for Structural-Functional BrainMapping, and in 2008 a full Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy andPsychosomatics at RWTH Aachen University. Since 2013, she has been a Full Professor forBrain Research and director of the C. and O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research, Heinrich-HeineUniversity Düsseldorf. In addition, she is director of the Institute of Neuroscience andMedicine (INM-1), Research Centre Jülich. Since 2012 Katrin Amunts has been a member ofthe German Ethics Council, and since May 2016 its Vice Chair. She is the speaker of theprogramme Decoding the Human Brain of the Helmholtz Association, Germany as well asspeaker, together with Thomas Lippert, of the Helmholtz Portfolio Theme Supercomputingand Modeling for the Human Brain (SMHB). In order to better understand the organisationalprinciples of the human brain, she and her team aim to develop a multi-level and multi-scalebrain atlas, and use methods of high-performance computing to generate ultra-high resolutionhuman brain models.

Key Message

The Human Brain Project (HBP), a 10-year European Flagship project, targets thereconstruction of the brain’s multi-scale organisation in order to advance the comprehensiveunderstanding of the brain with its 86 billion nerve cells. Taming the brain’s complexityrequires us to develop a cutting-edge ICT-based scientific research infrastructure. Its data andcomputing services enable researchers to deal with the most complex challenges ofneuroscience, medicine, and brain-inspired information technology. This infrastructure offerscloud-based collaboration and development platforms with databases, workflow systems,petabyte storage, and supercomputers. At the end of the Ramp-Up Phase, the HBP releasedinitial versions of six ICT Platforms to the international science community: theNeuroinformatics Platform, the Brain Simulation Platform, the High Performance Analyticsand Computing Platform, the Medical Informatics Platform, the Neuromorphic ComputingPlatform and the Neurorobotics Platform.

© Forschungszentrum Jülich/Catrin Moritz

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8.3 WALTER KOROSHETZ

CO-CHAIR OF THE NIH BRAIN INITIATIVE

DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS ANDSTROKE (NINDS), US NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH

Walter Koroshetz is the Director of the National Institute ofNeurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the US NationalInstitute of Health. He strives to advance the mission of theInstitute, to improve fundamental knowledge about the brainand the nervous system, and to use that knowledge to reduce theburden of neurological disorders. He joined NINDS as theDeputy Director in 2007 and was appointed Director in 2015. Dr.Koroshetz co-chairs the NIH Brain Initiative with Dr. JoshuaGordon, the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Before coming to NIH Dr. Koroshetz was a Harvard Professor ofNeurology, Vice Chair of Neurology at the MassachusettsGeneral Hospital, director of Stroke and Neurointensive Care, and a member of theHuntington’s disease unit. His research activities have spanned basic neurobiology to clinicaltrials. He directed Neurology training at MGH for 16 years. A graduate of GeorgetownUniversity and University of Chicago Medical School, Dr. Koroshetz specialised in InternalMedicine and Neurology.

Key message

Neuro/Mental/Substance abuse (NMS) disorders are the leading cause of disability in thedeveloped world and are caused by abnormal brain circuit activity. Our poor ability tomonitor brain activity or normalise brain circuit function is a major barrier for understandingand treating NMS disorders. The investigators of the US BRAIN Initiative are openingtechnological doors to enhance our understanding of how information is encoded andprocessed in brain circuits. The human brain is an amazingly complex computational organwith information flowing on electrochemical gradients and processed by chemicalneurotransmission at trillions of synapses.

Great challenges lie ahead as the complexity of brain circuitry extends across multiple spatialscales, from the information processing that goes on in a single neuron, to the interactions withits diverse neighbours, to the network activity that involves near and far nuclei. In addition,the dynamic brain circuit activity occurs at multiple time scales that can stretch frommilliseconds to days and even years.

This circuit activity is integrated into a constantly changing sensory environment for thepurpose of enabling the organism’s universe of behaviours. The NIH BRAIN Initiative projectsare positioned to provide tools for studies at various points along these spatial, temporal, andbehavioural scales in animal models as well as humans. NIH is committed to coordinatingwith the EU Human Brain Project to enhance the impact of the research investments for ourcitizens.

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8.4 TETSUO YAMAMORI

VICE PROJECT LEADER OF THE BRAIN/MINDS PROJECT

RIKEN BRAIN SCIENCE INSTITUTE

Tetsuo Yamamori is currently a team leader of the Brain ScienceInstitute, RIKEN, Japan. After graduating from hisundergraduate course in Kyoto University, he majored inmolecular biology in the same university and obtained his Ph.D,in 1981 for his study in which he found bacterial heat shock.

He conducted his postdoctoral studies at the University ofColorado, Boulder, and the California Institute of Technology,Pasadena, USA. He then studied the neuroscience of thecerebellum at Frontier Research System, RIKEN.

He became a professor of NIBB in 1994, where he studied theexpression and function of genes selectively expressed in

neocortical areas in primates. He was appointed as a concurrent professor in the NationalInstitute for Physiological Sciences from 2008 to 2015. He was also the Vice Director-Generalof NIBB from 2008 to 2013. He has been a vice project leader of the Brain Mapping byIntegrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/MINDS) Project since 2014.

Key message

The Brain/MINDS project in Japan focuses on marmosets, a species of small New Worldmonkeys, as a model system for primate research. Marmosets have several merits in research.They are small (300—500g) and relatively easy to handle, and have high reproduction ability.Germline transmittable transgenic marmosets and knock-out marmosets have beendeveloped.

We hope that the Brain/MINDS project can contribute to the worldwide effort of brainmapping project by providing infrastructure for the study of marmosets and by bridgingbetween projects on the mouse and human beings. Toward this purpose, we have two majorprojects.

One project is on connectomes at macro (MRI), meso (tracer), and nano (electron microscope)levels. The other is a new innovative neurotechnological studies including those using animaldisease models.

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8.5 RUXANDRA DRAGHIA-AKLI

DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL, DG RESEARCH & INNOVATION, EUROPEANCOMMISSION

Ruxandra Draghia-Akli is Deputy Director-General for Research& Innovation at the European Commission, responsible for theResearch Programmes. She serves as the Commissionrepresentative in the Governing Boards of most Joint TechnologyInitiatives of the EU with different industrial sectors. DrDraghia-Akli joined the European Commission in 2009 asDirector for Health Research in DG RTD.

She holds an MD degree and a PhD degree in human geneticsfrom the University Carol Davilla, Romania and has participatedin a fellowship programme in Genetics and Metabolic PathologyDepartment in "René Descartes" University in France, and post-doctoral training in molecular biology at Baylor College ofMedicine, USA. Before joining the Commission, Ruxandra worked in biotechnologycompanies, as Vice-President managing research programmes in the area of gene therapy andDNA vaccination.

Key message

The complexity of brain functioning and disorders requires a multidisciplinary researchapproach which will enable the understanding of underpinning physiological mechanisms. Itwill open the door to the development of personalised medicine in brain disorders. Researchprojects, clinical studies and patients' records are currently generating an impressive amountof data worldwide on the functioning and dysfunctioning of the brain. ThroughoutFramework Programmes for Research, the European Union has substantially contributed tothese global efforts. This has resulted in the establishment of a comprehensive and strategicneuroscience research portfolio, worth €3 billion, which addresses the health continuum frombetter understanding of brain disorders to delivery of care.

The EU Human Brain Project provides invaluable infrastructure and services to accelerate theexploitation of digital power for health research and healthcare delivery. With recent progress,cross-fertilisation of on-going EU initiatives and efforts is now possible. In particular, data andknow-how generated by EU projects should feed the HBP's platforms and contribute tomodellisation and validation. In parallel, EU projects will benefit from digital capacity, accessto large standardised data sets and simulation and software provided by HBP. This win-winpartnership will accelerate scientific advances needed for better tailored prevention, moreaccurate diagnosis and personalised treatment and care of brain disorders. This integrated EUinfrastructure should also seek collaborations with other large international brain initiativesto enhance global brain research capacity, address this complex issue from different butcomplementary angles and therefore maximise impact.

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8.6 RAINER GOEBEL

PROFESSOR OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY, THENETHERLANDS

Rainer Goebel studied psychology and computer science inMarburg, Germany (1983-1988) and completed his PhD in 1994at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany. Hereceived the Heinz Maier Leibnitz Advancement award incognitive science in 1993, and the Heinz Billing award from theMax Planck society in 1994 for developing a software packagefor the creation and simulation of neural network models. From1995-1999 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max PlanckInstitute for Brain Research in Frankfurt/Main. Since 2000 he hasbeen a full professor for Cognitive Neuroscience at MaastrichtUniversity, Netherlands. He is founding director of theMaastricht Brain Imaging Centre (M-BIC) and the driving forceof the recently established ultra-high field imaging centre. Since

2008 he has also been team leader of the “Modelling and Neuroimaging” group at theNetherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam. In 2014 he became a member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received funding for basic and appliedneuroscience research including an ERC Advanced Investigators Grant (2011 - 2016) and acompetitive grant from the Human Brain Project in the ramp-up phase. He is now mainlyinvolved in SP2 (Human Brain Organization) and heads the Co-Design Project 4 on visual-motor integration.

Key message

For cognitive neuroscientists, the Human Brain Project provides the opportunity to integratebrain measurements in a common brain atlas and to contribute to and benefit fromcomputational models of brain function. The concerted effort of the HBP will substantiallyimprove our knowledge how the brain works and it should also lead to better treatments ofbrain disorders. To advance cognitive neuroscience and to benefit from HBP’s ITinfrastructure, it is, however, important that a bottom-up modelling approach iscomplemented by a top-down modelling approach. The top-down approach convertsconceptual models of specific cognitive functions into computational architectures and finallyinto columnar-level spiking neuronal network models running on IT platforms. A combinedbottom-up and top-down modelling approach ensures that the final brain models are able toactually perform specific perceptual and cognitive tasks embedded in the neuro-roboticsplatform. To create neural network simulations of human cognition that are as realistic aspossible, it is of critical importance to integrate brain measures from the human brain that areable to constrain models at the level of cortical columns and cortical layers. We argue that thisis now possible by using ultra-high magnetic field scanners. Furthermore, columnar andlaminar fMRI establishes an important bridge to invasive non-human primate research.

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9 THE HUMAN BRAIN PROJECT – EXHIBITION

The Human Brain Project’s exhibition (Balcony 5G) highlights the unique contributions HBPis making to brain research and how these contributions are beneficial for European science,competitiveness and society. It was developed specially to accompany the STOA workshopUnderstanding the Human Brain – A new era of big neuroscience.

The exhibition consists of two large screens and three distinct and interlinked display areas -Neuroscience and the Human Brain, Platforms and Infrastructure and Responsible Researchand Innovation. Each display area contains an interactive video monitor and a carefullyselected collection of items. On one screen, visitors will learn about the scientific challengesthe HBP is addressing and the Project’s responses to these challenges. The second screendisplays an interactive map of the world with information on the HBP consortium of 116partners in 19 European countries and international collaborations with research institutionsin the USA, Canada and Japan.

Neuroscience and the Human Brain

In this area of the exhibition, visitors can view contemporary digital reconstructions of originaldrawings of neurons produced by one of neuroscience’s pioneering investigators, RamonCajal; see a microscope that is being used by HBP to create polarized light imaging images;and interact with small biomimetic autonomous companion robots that are using technologiesdeveloped as part of HBP to retrieve memories.

Platforms and Infrastructure

This section of the exhibition provides visitors with information about the researchinfrastructure for brain research being built by the HBP consortium. Visitors will be able toview physical examples of neuromorphic micro chips and silicon wafers, learn about HBPsfederated ICT infrastructure, and use a 3D explorer to view how Alzheimer affects the brainin comparison with a healthy brain. Visitors will also learn about the HBP Collaboratory, thepoint of entry for all of the HBP Platforms, through an interactive video and shortdemonstrations by our team.

Responsible Research and Innovation

This section of the exhibition showcases examples of innovative technologies developed aspart of the HBP, HBP’s work with students and citizens in Europe, and HBP’s progressiveapproach to ethics management. More specifically, visitors can meet Roboy, the firstanthropomimetic robot available in the Neurorobotics simulation platform; leaf through analbum with photos and quotes by students of HBP’s schools and speak with HBP’s EducationProgramme team; learn about how HBP is managing ethical issues; and read about whatEuropean citizens think about the HBP.

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10 ABOUT STOA

10.1 MISSION

The Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA) Panel forms an integral part of thestructure of the European Parliament. Launched in 1987, STOA is tasked with identifying andindependently assessing the impact of new and emerging science and technologies. The goalof its work is to assist, with independent information, the Members of the EuropeanParliament (MEPs) in developing options for long-term, strategic policy-making.

The STOA PanelThe STOA Panel consists of 24 MEPs nominated from the eight permanent parliamentarycommittees: AGRI (Agriculture & Rural Development), CULT (Culture & Education), EMPL(Employment & Social Affairs), ENVI (Environment, Public Health & Food Safety), IMCO(Internal Market & Consumer Protection), ITRE (Industry, Research & Energy), JURI (LegalAffairs) and TRAN (Transport & Tourism). Ms Mairéad McGuinness MEP is the EuropeanParliament Vice-President responsible for STOA and member of the Panel. The STOA Chairfor the first half of the 8th legislature is Paul Rübig, with Eva Kaili and Evžen Tošenovskýelected as 1st and 2nd Vice-Chairs.

The STOA Approach

STOA fulfils its mission primarily by carrying out science-based projects. Whilst undertakingthese projects, STOA assesses the widest possible range of options to support evidence-basedpolicy decisions. A typical project investigates the impacts of both existing and emergingtechnology options and presents these in the form of studies and options briefs. These arepublicly available for download via the STOA website: www.europarl.europa.eu/stoa/.

Some of STOA's projects explore the long-term impacts of future techno-scientific trends, withthe aim to support MEPs in anticipating the consequences of developments in science.Alongside its production of 'hard information', STOA communicates its findings to theEuropean Parliament by organising public events throughout the year.

Focus areas

STOA activities and products are varied and are designed to cover as wide a range of scientificand technological topics as possible, such as nano-safety, e-Democracy, bio-engineering,assistive technologies for people with disabilities, waste management, cybersecurity, smartenergy grids, responsible research & innovation and health.

They are grouped in five broad focus areas: eco-efficient transport and modern energysolutions; sustainable management of natural resources; potential and challenges of theInternet; health and life sciences; science policy, communication and global networking.

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10.2 ADMINISTRATION

Director-General, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS)

Anthony Teasdale

Director, Directorate C, Impact Assessment & European Added Value

Wolfgang Hiller

Head of Unit - Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA)

Theo Karapiperis

Head of Service - STOA Secretariat

Zsolt Pataki

Head of Service - Scientific Foresight

Lieve Van Woensel

Administrators

Philip Boucher

Christian Kurrer

Nera Kuljanic

Mihalis Kritikos

Gianluca Quaglio – Seconded National Expert

Assistants

Serge Evrard

Rachel Manirambona

Marie Massaro

Damir Plese

Trainee

James Tarlton

PE 581.930

This is a publication of the STOA SecretariatDirectorate for Impact Assessment and European Added ValueDirectorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, European Parliament