The UB participates in the projects the Human Brain and Graphene, both appointed an EU FET Flagships
The European Union has given, within the call FET Flagships, one billion euros to the Human Brain Project (HBP) and Graphene. Each project will receive 500 million euros during ten years. It is the most important grant conferred on EU research projects for future technological innovation.
The European Union has given, within the call FET Flagships, one billion euros to the Human Brain Project (HBP) and Graphene. Each project will receive 500 million euros during ten years. It is the most important grant conferred on EU research projects for future technological innovation.
The Human Brain Project
The University of Barcelona is one of the institutions involved in the Human Brain Project. To be exact, the UB researchers who participate in the project are: Modesto Orozco, professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Faculty of Chemistry) and researcher at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), and Eduardo Soriano, professor from the Department of Cell Biology at the Faculty of Biology; both faculties are located at the campus of international excellence BKC. Other experts who also collaborate in the project are: Mel Slater, ICREA researcher at the Faculty of Psychology of the UB and director of Event Lab; Mavi Sánchez-Vives, ICREA researcher at the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), centre that, like IRB, is affiliated with the HUBc, the health campus of the UB. The consortium HBP is also composed by some researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, affiliated centre with the campus of international excellence BKC.
The project, coordinated by the professor Henry Markram, from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausane (Switzerland), aims at exploring the human brain in order to develop new treatments for brain diseases and build revolutionary new computing technologies. Within the project, a new European integrated system of six ICT-based research platforms will be created to simulate the human brain.
The Human Brain Project will develop ICT platforms for neuroinformatics, brain simulation and supercomputing that will make it possible to federate neuroscience data from all over the world, to integrate the data in unifying models and simulations of the brain, to check the models against data from biology and to make them available to the world scientific community. The ultimate goal is to allow neuroscientists to connect the dots leading from genes, molecules and cells to human cognition and behaviour. Finally, the HBP will build new platforms for neurorobotics, allowing researchers to develop new computing systems and robots based on the architecture and circuitry of the brain.
The HBP consortium is composed by institutions from 22 countries; nearly all EU countries participate but also Switzerland, USA, Japan and China. Once the project will be working all-out, it will employ about 550 researchers.
Graphene project
Graphene is a bi-dimensional crystalline made of graphite. Graphene can be used to produce the thinnest objects all over the world, and it is the hardest material known and a better conductive than cooper.
In Graphene work 623 groups for 32 countries, twenty of them belong to Catalan institutions, such as the UB and the Barcelona Science Park and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), affiliated with the HUBc. One researcher from the UB who participate in the project is Enric Bertran, professor from the Department of Applied Physics and Optics at the Faculty of Physics, located at the BKC. The project is coordinated by the professor Jari Kinaret, from the Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden).