The European Brain Research Area project
The European Brain Research Area project (EBRA) was created as a catalysing initiative for brain research stakeholders (researchers, clinicians, patients, governments, funders and public institutions) to streamline and better coordinate brain research across Europe while fostering global initiatives.
EBRA aims to consolidate and facilitate collaboration in the European brain research landscape. Some of EBRA’s notable projects include:
- mapping the European brain research landscape
- SEBRA, the Shared Brain Research Agenda, which will provide recommendations on future areas for excellent, innovative and translational brain research in Europe
- the EBRA Clusters
EBRA contributes to increasing the visibility of the brain research portfolio and enabling the sharing of data and exploitation of results. FENS and EBRA share the common goal of enhancing coordination and collaboration among brain related projects and initiatives.
As one of the founding members of the European Brain Council and part of the general brain research ecosystem in Europe and worldwide, FENS supports EBRA and contributes to its objectives of consolidating the European research area, reducing fragmentation in both funding and research as well as identifying knowledge gaps and how we can facilitate translation of breakthroughs in brain research.
The EBRA Clusters
The EBRA Clusters aim to promote cooperation and exchange between brain research projects; to enable and enhance European and international collaboration; and to develop research communities in all areas of brain research. Six clusters have been identified:
- BRAINFOOD aims to impact on brain health by improving nutrition of European citizens based upon fundamental insights in the bidirectional links between brain health and nutrition;
- EPI-CLUSTER aims to establish a collaborative framework for the coordinated actions of epilepsy research in Europe, based around shared partnerships and research priorities;
- PREVENTION OF SEVERE MENTAL DISORDERS (PSMD) CLUSTER will foster collaboration and gathering of experts in the field of severe mental disorders;
- PREDICTIVE MODEL SYSTEMS CLUSTER (PREMOS) aims to enhance the alignment of EU disease model development resources and preclinical research expertise with clinical and brain research community needs across academia and industry;
- TRISOMY-21 CLUSTER aims to establish a collaborative framework for the coordinated actions of Down syndrome research in Europe;
- EUROPEAN CLUSTER FOR IMAGING BIOMARKERS CLUSTER (ECIB) aims to achieve transformative leaps in the translation of “big-imaging-data”-research into scientific and medical innovations by creating critical synergies between neuroimaging projects at both European and global level.
More about EBRA
EBRA was designed to respond to the Horizon 2020 call entitled “Coordinating European brain research and developing global initiatives” in 2018, which called for the reduction of fragmentation and duplication of research efforts, fostering synergies through enhanced coordination of brain research efforts at EU and at global level, improved access to and optimising the use of research infrastructures and data sources by the neuroscience research communities, thus ensuring better exploitation of the large investments made in brain research, achieving critical mass and economies of scale by initiating and fostering new global research initiatives, as well as enabling and accelerating the translation of breakthroughs in brain research into relevant clinical applications.
Connect with EBRA:
ebra.eu
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