Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences joins EBRAINS as an Associate Member

The Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences has joined EBRAINS AISBL as an Associate Member, strengthening its links to Europe’s digital research infrastructure for brain science. This partnership opens new opportunities for international collaboration and advanced research.

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The membership will give ICS CAS the opportunity to co-design future iterations of EBRAINS’ cutting-edge tools and services. These state-of-the-art capabilities - which include an extensive range of brain data sets, a multilevel brain atlas, modelling and simulation tools, and access to high-performance computing resources and neuromorphic platforms - aim to help European researchers to address major challenges in brain health.

“EBRAINS membership provides a natural framework for ICS CAS to develop further and share its expertise in computational and data-driven neuroscience,” says Jaroslav Hlinka, Head of the Department of Complex Systems and Deputy Director of ICS CAS, who will represent the Institute in EBRAINS activities. “Particularly through the COBRA group and the interdisciplinary BRADY project, we bring expertise in complex systems, information dynamics, neuroimaging data analysis, and computational modelling of brain activity. We aim to contribute open and reproducible approaches for understanding brain dynamics across scales, and to co-develop them with European partners.”

The EBRAINS research infrastructure, a key outcome and legacy of the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP), was officially launched in 2019. Two years later, in 2021, EBRAINS was included in the Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). In this next phase, after the recent conclusion of the HBP, EBRAINS will complete the transition into a sustainable infrastructure.

EBRAINS is an open research infrastructure that gathers high-quality research data, tools, and computing facilities for brain-related research, built with interoperability at the core. The infrastructure offers an extensive range of FAIR data sets, the most comprehensive multilevel brain atlas, AI-based tools for analysis, modelling and simulation tools, and access to high-performance computing resources and neuromorphic platforms to researchers.

“We are very happy to welcome ICS CAS as an Associate member at EBRAINS,” says Philippe Vernier, Joint-CEO of EBRAINS. “The Institute boasts considerable expertise in the domain of computational neuroscience, as well as artificial intelligence, modelling, and neuroimaging.”

About COBRA and BRADY

The Complex Networks and Brain Dynamics Group (COBRA) at ICS CAS focuses on developing computational methods to understand complex systems, with an emphasis on brain dynamics and network-based approaches. The BRADY project further expands this research direction through interdisciplinary collaboration and computational modelling in neuroscience.