Partners

The EBRAINS research infrastructure, a key outcome and legacy of the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP), was officially launched in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, EBRAINS was included in the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). In this next phase, after the recent conclusion of the HBP, EBRAINS will complete the transition into a sustainable infrastructure.

EBRAINS is an open research infrastructure that gathers high-quality research data, tools and computing facilities for brain-related research, built with interoperability at the core. The infrastructure offers an extensive range of FAIR data sets, a most comprehensive multilevel brain atlas, AI-based tools for analysis, modelling and simulation tools, and access to high-performance computing resources, robotics and neuromorphic platforms to researchers. Explore the tools and services available here.

Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) is France’s largest university and tightly linked to the second largest public hospital Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM). Its A*Midex University Foundation, which supports the ongoing IDEX, is helping to develop a world-class interdisciplinary higher education and research cluster. Known as a "research-intensive university", it is home to 122 research structures linked to major national research organizations.

Aix-Marseille Université is committed to interdisciplinarity, which is at the heart of its development strategy, and has recently created 18 "instituts d'établissement" (institutes of higher education), guaranteeing bridges between research and education, and a broad international outlook. Local partnerships such as the Cité de l'Innovation et des Savoirs Aix-Marseille (CISAM), the Pôles d'Innovation Territoriaux (PIT) and the technology platforms in partnership with the CNRS and INSERM bear witness to AMU's commitment to innovation and its contribution to the creation of societal wealth.

AMU is leader in clinical translation of computational brain modelling. AMU has expertise in virtual brain modelling, model inversion, and a large range of Bayesian inference technologies. AMU leads the world’s first virtual brain clinical trial, of which APHM is the promoter. Professor Viktor Jirsa is scientific lead of The Virtual Brain simulation platform.

Established in 1710, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin  is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe. It combines research, teaching and clinical care. It lays claim to more than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine, including Emil von Behring, Robert Koch, and Paul Ehrlich.

Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) was founded in 2013 with the mission to foster medical innovation and improve patients’ health and quality of life, focusing on digitization, patient involvement, personalized medicine research, advanced therapies, and innovation.

The Brain Simulation Section at BIH, Charité has strong expertise in the fields of digital health, complex modelling, data science and informatics platform development.

Charité is a member of the EOSC and the ESFRI RI EBRAINS AISBL and coordinates multiple large scale digital infrastructure projects, for instance EOSC project Virtual Brain Cloud, Horizon Infrastructure project eBRAIN-Health, and Digital Europe project Testing and Experimentation Facility Health AI and Robotics with the goal to spearhead technical health data solutions that support a European Health Data Space.

CHARITE is leading EBRAINS Service for Sensitive Data: the Health Data Cloud.

Since 1827, KTH has grown to become an international leading technical university. As the largest institution in Sweden for technical education and research, it brings together students, researchers, and educators worldwide. Its activities are grounded in a strong tradition of advancing science and innovation, focusing on contributing to sustainable societal development.

With a continuously expanding network of industry partners, societal stakeholders, and leading universities, KTH is driving the development of sustainable solutions to several of our time's greatest challenges, such as climate change, food and water security, future energy supply, and improved quality of life. Its education and research covers a wide range of fields, mainly in technology, natural sciences, architecture, industrial economics, social planning and learning. Its innovative climate fosters new perspectives and solutions, promoting excellent education and research.

KTH conducts excellent basic and applied research, currently ranking 73rd among 1,500 universities worldwide in the QS World University Rankings. Its research structures enable interdisciplinary and external collaborations that contribute to new knowledge, technologies, products, and services. Its academic freedom is fundamental to democracy, and it works by principles of openness and transparency. Together and in collaboration with its growing network, it drives innovation and advancement of knowledge forward.

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München is a leading research university in Europe. Since its founding in 1472 it has been committed to the highest international standards of excellence in research and teaching. Since its foundation, LMU’s faculty and students have crossed borders to carry out research, teach and study abroad. The work in its libraries, laboratories and lecture halls have been enriched by international perspectives and diverse approaches. Today, LMU maintains more than 600 cooperation agreements with partner universities around the globe.

LMU has long participated with great success in EU-funded programs in the fields of research and innovation. These include not only the current Framework Program "Horizon 2020", but also the European Universities Initiative and projects on the exchange of best practices and measures in political education (Key Actions 2 and 3). In this context, LMU can count on its extensive network of partner universities and the excellent international contacts maintained by its teachers and researchers.

LMU brings in the clinical and translational reference frame to the project (prediction of outcome in early stages of psychotic disorders). LMU has coordinated large-scale propsective recruitment efforts in this field (EU-FP7 project PRONIA; www.pronia.eu) and thus has put together a multimodal database comprising structural and functional imaging data of 1970 clinical participants (clinical high-risk and first episode states of patients with psychotic and mood disorders) and healthy controls.

Furthermore, LMU is an international leader in the development and validation of predictive tools using artificial intelligence. LMU has generated differential diagnostic, prognostic and theranostic machine learning algorithms for different stages of psychotic disorders.

Finally, LMU brings in long-standing experience in the (a) development of therapeutic interventions for these conditions, including exercise and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, (b) study of the central nervous mechanisms underlying response and non-response to these interventions.

Almost four centuries after its founding, the UvA has grown into a University with a leading reputation in the international world of science. The University is home to over 34,000 students, 3,000 PhD researchers, 6,000 staff and over a hundred different nationalities. The UvA has close links with the city of Amsterdam.

The four UvA campuses form an integral part of the city. The UvA also forms partnerships with companies, social institutions, museums, citizens and the municipality. These collaborations help find solutions to urban challenges and make education and research more meaningful for scientists and students.

The UvA conducts research that makes a difference. It is working on a sustainable, fair and healthy future. Through innovative research into complex social challenges. Every faculty conducts high-quality research in its own field, which helps increase knowledge and solve societal problems. In addition, the UvA focuses on a number of leading interdisciplinary research areas. The purpose of these research priority areas is to explore and encourage innovation by bringing together different disciplines, beyond faculty boundaries.

Examples of its multidisciplinary research: Human(e) AI – Brings together researchers who work on the legal, ethical and social consequences of AI and automated decision-making; Brain and cognition – Covers the full spectrum from brain cell to social behaviour. Medical practitioners, psychologists, linguists, neurologists, economists, behavioural specialists, biologists and logicians work together on this; European studies – Focuses on major societal challenges, such as sustainability, migration and privacy, in a European context. A collaboration between 4 faculties.

Researchers from the UvA participating in the Virtual Brain Twin project bring expertise on computational neuroscience, in particular on topics such as development of mathematical mean-field models and large-scale brain network simulations, which is necessary for the success of the research proposed here.

The university of Pavia is one of the oldest universities in the world founded in 1361 and offering degree courses in all fields of studies. The university is an active promoter of research in collaboration with the world’s most prestigious academic institutions. The international department of the University of Pavia is strengthening the international vocation of its academic institution by implementing Degree Courses in English and several projects spread around the world.

Since 2020 Pavia is one of the seven historical universities founding european alliance ” Ec2u European campus of city universities” : this multicultural and multilinguistic consortium works hard to transmit sustainable development values and brings them into the daily life of academics and citizens.

The University of Pavia has a longstanding tradition in planning and attracting a significant amount of funds for research initiatives. In the context of Horizon2020 – the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-2020 – the University of Pavia: (I) hosts 14 MSCA actions (5 ETN, 1 EJD, 5 IF and 3 RISE, 11 of which still ongoing); (II) hosts 10 ERC grants (5 Starting, 3 Consolidator and 2 Advanced, 8 of which still ongoing); (III) is involved in other 30 collaborative R&D projects for a total of 54participations (€25m). Its most significant initiatives being the Human Brain Project, 3 ENIAC JTI projects, 1 Innovative Medicine Initiative projects, and the PERISCOPE project (recently funded with more than €10M to conduct researches on the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic). In addition, the University takes part in international consortia financed by the JTI ECSEL Joint Undertaking and the CONCERT consortium for European Joint Programming.

The National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) is a major player in basic research on the global stage and the only organisation in France that is active in all fields of science. Its unique position as a specialist in multiple fields means that it can bring together different scientific disciplines to shed light on and gain insight into current global challenges, in partnership with public sector, social and economic stakeholders.

Together the sciences are used to bring about sustainable progress that benefits the whole of society. The CNRS has chosen to pursue research that leverages every field, in pursuit of sustainable progress, to deliver technological, scientific or societal advances. Scientific discoveries resulting from basic research are made in CNRS laboratories. Researchers, engineers and technicians work together alongside academics and professionals from other institutions (universities, research organisations) and in all disciplines to explore the secrets of life, space and matter, including the study of human societies.

The CNRS either steers or co-steers the majority of the 47 Priority Research Programmes and Equipments (PEPR) launched as part of the France 2030 plan, alongside the previously launched Priority Research Programmes (PPR). The aim of PEPR is to build or consolidate French leadership in the scientific fields that play a role in technological, economical, societal, health or environmental transformation and that are considered as National or European priorities.

These programmes are managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR), and are divided into two types: PEPRs for the national acceleration strategy, which support transformations that are already underway such as decarbonised hydrogen or artificial intelligence (AI), and exploratory PEPRs, the purpose of which is to grow emerging sectors such as DNA data storage (MoleculArXiv) or the integration of robots into society (O2R).

Specifically in the framework of the Virtual Brain Twin project, the CNRS partner brings expertise in the design of mean-field models to be integrated in TVB.

Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) is a large German research centre with 6,500 employees and a member of the Helmholtz Association. FZJ works together with numerous partners from science and industry at the national and international level and does so to the benefit of all involved.

Among the scientifically and strategically most important partners at the moment are RWTH Aachen University, the French Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the USA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in China. More than 2,000 scientists work at the research center. In more than 80 different institutes, they search for new findings in their respective fields, often taking unconventional paths. Year after year, they publish their findings in thousands of scientific articles, initiate new research projects or register their discoveries as patents.

As one of the largest project management agencies in Germany, Project Management Jülich (PtJ) works hand in hand with public authorities in science, industry, and politics. With its expertise in research and innovation management, PtJ supports its clients in the German federal and state governments as well as the European Commission in achieving their funding policy objectives. On behalf of its clients, PtJ implements research and innovation funding programmes that have been tailored to meet their specific requirements and address socio-political needs.

As a European leader in high performance computing, the FZJ’sJülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) has long-standing expertise in operating supercomputers of the highest performance class. In cooperation with industry partners, the JSC co-designs innovative high performance computing (HPC) technology, meeting the challenges of the next supercomputer generation.

The JSC plays an active role in various national and EC-funded R&D and infrastructure projects in HPC, networking, and distributed/Grid computing. In particular, it has been pivotal in the creation of PRACE, the European supercomputing research infrastructure, and of the Fenix Research Infrastructure. The JSC’s Simulation and Data Lab Neuroscience (SDLN) is an interdisciplinary group of researchers providing high-level support to the neuroscience community in the usage of HPC and modular supercomputing to address the challenges of compute and data intensive scientific workflows.

The areas of expertise covered by the SDLN include: scientific software co-design, development, optimization, and deployment on High Performance Computing systems and cloud resources, infrastructure design, community outreach and training, analysis of requirements derived from research use cases, and coordination of international projects.

The Technical University of Madrid (UPM) was founded in 1971 through the integration of the Higher Technical Schools which up until then made up the Higher Technical Institutes. The University Schools joined the following year. As set out in its statures, the Technical University of Madrid has, among its objectives, the creation, development, transmission and criticism of science, technology, and culture. To this end it also works from its Institutes and Research Centres, assimilating the changes taking place in out society and maintaining its vocation for excellence, which is why it has both national and international recognition.

The UPM holds a recognition as a Campus of International Excellence, a distinction that refers to the quality of its research activity and its expertise to facilitate the transference of scientific results to the markets. The UPM brings the innovation, technology transfer and exploitation skills to the Virtual Brain Twin project. In particular, the UPM leads the commercial and non-commercial translation of the project results to the clinical and/or industrial users, providing thus a transversal support to the rest of project partners.

The UPM has also a solid background in making exploitation plans, elaborating market intelligence reports, organizing bootcamp events for venture capital firms and investors, and designing matchmaking events to connect researchers with industrial institutions and start-ups. The institution will also provide with capacity building and training initiatives on intellectual property and innovation management.

The UPM team is led by Dr. Guillermo VELASCO who has wide experience in technology management, technology foresight, and policy advice formulation for the European Research Area, with a special focus in technologic innovation. The UPM team has a long trajectory in supporting neuroscientific and neurotechnology labs and groups within the Human Brain Project, and has contributed to make their brain-related solutions and tools more visible and attractive for the clinical and industrial stakeholders.

Codemart is certified under ISO 9001, for the procedure of delivering client tailored software solutions. Codemart is intimately familiar with architecting, building and maintaining fairly large codebases for various industries in many countries. Ranging from neuroscience projects, to printers coordination solutions, Codemart maintained recurrent collaborations with its final clients over the years. Codemart is a closely knit team of specialists, having long experience in computer science and training at the Technical University of Cluj Napoca.

Codemart have made it part of the procedure to write automated test, have continuous integration builds and try various optimization techniques for each of the solutions tailored.

Research services, reporting to the Vice-Rector's Office for Research, Innovation and Transfer and taking into account its powers and guidelines, among other tasks and functions, the following are carried out: (I) Dissemination, promotion, coordination and management of funding opportunities for the various competitive research support programs with state, regional, local funding and funding from foundations or other public/private entities; (II) Support and advice to researchers on the procedures for managing research projects, including information on the use of the platforms available to them. Resolution of doubts, incidents and queries; (II) Monitoring and justification of research expenses; (III) Promotion, coordination, management and execution of the actions to be developed of the Own Program for the promotion and development of research and innovation at the Rey Juan Carlos University, through the calls published for this purpose; (IV) Management of recognized research groups at the Rey Juan Carlos University.

Within the Virtual Brain Twin project, the URJC team contributes with techniques for the interactive visual exploration of data. In this topic, it has achieved great experience during in the past, specially in the Human Brain Project. Its team has designed a visualization suite following a multiscale approach that can depict from cells to complex networks, showing complementary representations (abstract and realistic) in a multiview environment. In this framework, URJC team has developed tools supporting interactive visual analysis from different perspectives (anatomical, functional and connectivity) in a coordinated fashion.

As one of only eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany, University of Bonn is the only university with as many as six Clusters of Excellence. Recent decades have seen them produce more winners of the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal than any other German university.

The University of Bonn has a 200-year history of combining excellent research in a range of disciplines with research-led teaching. The founding professors already saw Bonn as a research university aimed at answering scientific, social and technological questions. Researchers, teachers and early-career researchers all benefit from this today, taking advantage of established German and global networks and strong scientific and social partnerships—with measurable effect.

The University of Bonn’s success in the Excellence contest is down partly to the strong track record of discipline-specific research in its various faculties, which laid the foundations for six Clusters of Excellence. However, the University’s six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) also make a significant contribution to its Excellence Strategy; these are: Mathematics, Modelling and Simulation of Complex Systems, Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions, Life and Health, Individuals, Institutions and Societies, Past Worlds and Modern Questions. Cultures Across Time and Space, Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Futures.

The funding secured since 2019 has been channeled into developing and expanding the TRAs as the mainstay of the University of Bonn’s research profile. They are already having an impact not only within the University itself but also in wider society, in technology and in the political sphere.

APHM is a pediatric and adult university multi-site hospital. It has 3103 beds (221 paediatrics departments,1862 medical staff,8468 paramedical staff and 1493 administrative staff). The children hospital provides for 51413 hospitalizations, 72164 emergency consultations, and over 5,000 births on an annual basis. 2531 patients are seen daily at the outpatient clinic. 258 transplantations were performed in 2015,20 for paediatrics. In APHM 7 RC for rare diseases,37 competence centres & a research Centre dedicated to child and adolescent health research (DHU MaRCHE: Maladies Rares et Chroniques de l’Infant et l’Adolescent) was labialized in march 2015. The IMD centre see 1215 paediatrics patients(divided between 2 physicians) with 153 new diagnoses in 2015.176 adults patients with IMD are seen by 2 physicians and collaborates with other national IMD centres and has been central in the establishment of the IMD national network “filiere G2M” as Pr CHABROL is the coordinator. The centre works with IMD patient groups through meetings, presentations, training and distributing information at the centre. Specialised laboratory facilities and early diagnosis: The hospital works in direct collaboration with specialised laboratory testing facilities. Biochemists and geneticists ensure an early diagnosis. -Good practice guidelines: APHM has contributed to elaborating national and international good practise guidelines in several disease areas, including phenylketonuria, mucopolysaccharidosis, UCD, organic acidurias. -Education and training: activities include training for undergraduate, graduate and fellows. Pr Chabrol contributes to the metabolic DU at Paris Descartes University. Articles are regularly published in scientific journals.APHM regularly receives foreign medical Dr for training purposes and participates in the training of general paediatricians to IMD at a session at the French Pediatric Society meeting for whom Pr Chabrol is the president. Clinical and translational research: Over the years, APHM has been involved in R&D for several treatments, including ERT and small molecules.Registries and data collection: contribution to the national registry BAMARA.

The mission of Athena RC is to conduct outstanding research in Informatics and Computational Sciences and to ensure this research has an impact on society, tackling global challenges and addressing local needs. Athena RC studies a broad spectrum of research issues within these fields, including some raised by other sciences, industrial applications, or societal challenges.

The scope of activities of Athena RC includes all Information and Communication Technologies, from the perspective of both Computer Science and Computational Sciences, and covering all software and hardware aspects. These include all areas of informatics, data science, robotics, automation, signal processing, artificial intelligence, networking and digital communication, and modelling.

Multidisciplinarity is at the foundation of the research philosophy of Athena RC, which carries out R&D both at the level of information technology itself and at the level of specific applications. Computational sciences thus form a strong component of the Athena RC activities, including - but not being limited to - computational linguistics, archaeology, engineering, medicine, biology, biodiversity, earth observation, space science, mechanics, and the arts.

Together with research, innovation is also a fundamental pillar of the mission of Athena RC. Research institutes, spin-off companies, and three highly-specialised clusters in knowledge-intensive thematic sectors create a fertile technological innovation ecosystem within the Center. Collaboration between all actors, including systematic efforts to bring research results to market, has always been mutually beneficial.

EUFAMI was founded in 1992 after a congress, which took place in 1990 in De Haan, Belgium, where carers from all over Europe shared their experiences of helplessness and frustration when living with severe mental illness. They resolved to work together to help both themselves and the people they cared for.

EUFAMI is a democratic organisation, registered in Belgium as an international non-profit organisation. It has an ongoing commitment to improving care and welfare for people affected by mental illness. It also enables its member organisations to act jointly at a European Level, combining their efforts and sharing experience.

Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy Networks-Europe (GAMIAN-Europe), is a non-profit, patient-driven pan-European organisation, representing and advocating the interests and rights of persons affected by mental ill health. Its principal activities relate to advocacy, information, awareness-raising, education, partnership and capacity building. Overarching themes in our work relate to destigmatisation of mental ill health and the championing of patients’ rights.

GAMIAN-Europe was established in 1998 as a representative coalition of patient organisations. Ever since, our work is centred on the belief that patients can and should play an effective and complementary role in developing positive and proactive policies and other impactful initiatives on mental health issues and services.

As GAMIAN-Europe expands its policy efforts, it increasingly engages in dialogues with EU institutions focused on mental health. Although health policy is mainly the jurisdiction of Member States, the EU plays a complementary role, as dictated by the Treaty. This role has seen the EU address various health-related matters, including mental health.

GAMIAN-Europe is increasingly invited as a partner in EU-funded research projects. Our role in these projects consists of ensuring that the patient view is included in the work and outcome of the project as well as disseminating the projects’ findings to relevant stakeholders.

With active individual members in as many as 88 countries and 44 National Psychiatric Association Members who represent more than 78 000 European psychiatrists, the European Psychiatric Association is the main association representing psychiatry in Europe. The EPA’s activities address the interests of psychiatrists in academia, research and practice throughout all stages of career development.

The EPA deals with psychiatry and its related disciplines and focuses on the improvement of care for the mentally ill as well as on the development of professional excellence.