A variety of information will be brought together for the research platform. This information includes brain imaging studies such as PET, EEG and MRI, behavioral studies and lifestyle surveys, as well as clinical data from thousands of patients and healthy controls. The data is combined with biological information from knowledge databases and made available for research purposes. The resulting digital twins of the brain will allow a large number of researchers to conduct innovative research within a powerful digital platform. In addition, the new research infrastructure with its traceable analysis pipelines contributes to reproducible science. In turn, the complex, individualized brain simulations taking into account a large amount of data have the potential to better understand mechanisms of brain function and diseases, improve diagnosis and prediction of diseases, and optimize therapies based on the virtual brain. The project involves 20 partners and takes place in cooperation with EBRAINS AISBL, the coordinating body of the EU flagship Human Brain Project.
Project coordinator Professor Petra Ritter welcomes the funding by the Infrastructure Program of the European Commission: "We are pleased that our consortium has been trusted by the EC to develop a European infrastructure for health data. Not least, this decision expresses recognition for the successful coordinator role of Charité and BIH in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) large-scale project Virtual Brain Cloud, in which the platform architecture was developed that will now be rolled out on a European level. Likewise, the approval of this new major project recognizes our contribution in the EU Flagship Human Brain Project for the development of cloud services for sensitive health data. These developments will contribute to the establishment of the European Health Data Space - an important pillar of future health research in Europe."
Duration: 4 years from July 1, 2022.
Budget Charité: 1,396,250 euros, total budget: 12,999,305 euros.
Further information on Horizon projects within Charité can be found here: https://www.charite.de/en/service/press_reports/artikel/detail/horizon_europe_charite_coordinates_four_new_eu_projects/