Billion pound neuroscience study The Human Brain Project begins

The Human Brain Project, a billion pound, 10-year joint study between numerous scientific institutions is now underway.

14:20 08 October 2013

The Human Brain Project, which is backed up a $1bn budget and shared between scientists from 135 institutions, has begun.

Co-funded by the EU, it aims to revolutionise our understanding of the human brain develop the technology needed to create a computer simulation of the brain.

It is also expected to compile research papers related to the human brain from different neuroscience papers that are published annually.

Prof Henry Markram, Director of the HBP at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), in Switzerland said: "The Human Brain Project is an attempt to build completely new computer science technology that will enable us to collect all the information we have built up about the brain over the years.”

"We should begin to understand what makes the human brain unique, the basic mechanisms behind cognition and behaviour, how to objectively diagnose brain diseases, and to build new technologies inspired by how the brain computes."

Scientists who are involved in the project are expected to create supercomputers needed to simulate the complex brain function in the next 10 years.