Fact Box: BRAIN initiative

April 9, 2013

USA reveals US$100m research initiative “BRAIN” to understand the human brain

Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN)
Funding of an initial $100 million from the president’s fiscal 2014 budget
3 US government agencies involved: the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation.

Objective:

Understanding the human brain
To discover new ways of understanding how the human brain works.
To create pictures of the brain in order to understand how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.
To devise better treatments for injuries and diseases of the brain.

US Govt. has described BRAIN as one of the administration’s “grand challenges”.

BRAIn research initiative