Deadline Date: June 16, 2026
The European Commission is supporting the advancement of neuroscience research, brain medicine, and brain-inspired technologies through the development and operation of the EBRAINS digital research infrastructure.
The initiative focuses on developing a state-of-the-art EBRAINS digital infrastructure for brain research that provides data, digital tools, and services to European research communities in neurosciences, brain medicine, and brain-inspired technologies. The platform will be powered by artificial intelligence to enable intuitive user interaction, facilitate neuroscience research, support data analysis, and enable brain simulations and modelling while ensuring FAIR data indexing and archival to scale up data integration and curation. It also aims to create new services and applications aligned with national and European research priorities by connecting large datasets, services, and tools through integrated workflows with access to extensive storage and compute resources. The initiative promotes the development of innovative brain-inspired AI tools based on insights from brain research, including learning, decision processes, and plasticity, with applications in research, robotics, and neurotechnology. Another priority is the creation of detailed, data-driven multi-scale models of complex behaviour, intelligence, consciousness, and language to study variability in human brain organisation throughout the lifespan. The programme also supports the development of digital brain twins and body twins informed by real-life sensor data to advance tools for diagnostics, rehabilitation, intensive care, and surgery in brain medicine. Additionally, it seeks to establish a framework for the European Brain Data Space aligned with the European Health Data Space and connected to the European Open Science Cloud and other European data spaces in life sciences and health. Strengthening European cooperation in brain health research is another major objective, enabling shared infrastructure, improved diagnostics, innovative therapies, and more personalised treatment strategies that enhance patient care and public health.
The programme supports the operation of EBRAINS digital facilities by providing access to a federated supercomputing research infrastructure, large-scale data storage, cloud services, and computational capabilities connected to European high-performance computing capacities approaching the exascale era. This infrastructure is designed to enable complex neuroscience research, large-scale simulations, and data-driven investigations into brain function and disease.
The programme also emphasises scalability and robustness of the infrastructure. The digital services must demonstrate the ability to handle extremely large and complex datasets, including imaging datasets in the terabyte range along with their associated metadata. Scalable tools such as annotation platforms, artificial intelligence pipelines, and secure data handling systems will be developed to ensure that the infrastructure evolves into a stable and continuously available service capable of supporting researchers, clinical stakeholders, and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The initiative further aims to strengthen international collaboration in digital neuroscience by working with global partners involved in the International Brain Initiative and other major research programmes. These collaborations are intended to maintain Europe’s central role in global brain research efforts and encourage shared progress in understanding the human brain.
The programme has a total funding allocation of €32,000,000 and is open to any legal entity worldwide, including organisations from non-associated countries and international organisations, provided they meet the conditions outlined in the Horizon Europe Regulation.
For more information, visit EC.
