The EU's Human Brain Project (HBP) Flagship – Accelerating brain science discovery and collaboration (Extended Abstract) © Katrin Amunts, Jülich, Düsseldorf, Germany Abstract. The human brain has a multi-level organisation and high complexity. New approaches are necessary to decode the brain with its 86 billion nerve cells, which form extensive networks. Ultra-high resolution models of the brain pose massive challenges in terms of data processing, visualisation and analysis. The Human Brain Project creates a cutting-edge European infrastructure to enable cloud-based collaboration among researchers from different disciplines around the world. The infrastructure includes development platforms with databases, workflow systems, petabyte storage. New technologies, including neuromorphic computing and robotics are being developed. Neuroscientists and ICT-specialists collaborate in a co-design process, based on neuroscientific use cases, to develop such infrastructure, thus opening new perspective to decode the human brain. Keywords: data analytics, data management, future computing, neuroinformatics, neuroscience. 1 Introduction The HBP infrastructure will enable cloud-based collaboration among researchers coming from The human brain has a highly complex, multi-level different disciplines around the world. To achieve this, organisation. New approaches are necessary to decode research platforms include databases, workflow the brain with its 86 billion nerve cells, which form systems, petabyte storage, and supercomputers, to complex networks – a challenge that is addressed by address the requirements of the different users. the Human Brain Project (1). E.g., 3D Polarized Light Imaging (2) elucidates the connectional architecture of 3 Project Structure the brain at the level of axons, while keeping the The core project involves 117 institutions and 500 topography of the whole organ; it results in data sets of researchers from 19 countries. It is organized in 12 several Petabytes per brain, which should be actively Subprojects. Neuroscience Subprojects include: accessible while minimizing their transport. Thus, Mouse Brain Organization, Human Brain ultra-high-resolution models pose massive challenges Organization, Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience in terms of data processing, visualisation and analysis. and Theoretical Neuroscience. Activities in these High-resolution data obtained in post-mortem Subprojects provide insights across all levels of brain brains supplement information about structural and organization: They will be more and more linked and functional connectivity as obtained, e.g., by Magnetic integrated into comprehensive models, and tested by Resonance imaging, acquired from the living human simulation. brain, but with lower spatial resolution. By bringing Big data analytics and simulation are highly together different aspects of connectivity in one and challenging and data intensive. Therefore, the Human the same atlas, it is feasible to combine the advantages Brain Project embraces ICT solutions. These include of the different approaches, and to address the different cloud-based collaboration and development platforms, spatial (and temporal) scales. with databases for metadata and provenance tracking, 2 The Human Brain Project as well as data analytics and compute services, right up to leading-edge supercomputers, neuromorphic The Human Brain Project is developing a new systems (4), and virtual robots (5). Research and European research infrastructure. Part of it is the HBP development in these areas is organized in six atlas. It integrates information from multiple levels of Subprojects, forming research platforms: brain organisation including cellular architecture, Neuroinformatics, Simulation, High Performance connectivity, molecular and genetic maps, as well Analytics and Computing, Medical Informatics, results from neuroimaging and physiological studies. Neuromorphic Computing, and Robotics. In addition, This atlas is a resource for empirical research, but also Management and Ethics & Society form two modeling and simulation. To represent microscopical Subprojects. data, it includes the Big Brain as one of its templates The main IT service infrastructures is represented (3). by the Neuroinformatics Platform (NIP) and the High- Performance Analytics and Computing Platform Proceedings of the XIX International Conference (HPAC). Data from patients are being collected and “Data Analytics and Management in Data Intensive analysed in the Medical Informatics Platform (6). The Domains” (DAMDID/RCDL’2017), Moscow, Russia, October 10–13, 2017 148 so-called COLLAB provides a connection between the https://education.humanbrainproject.eu/web/hbp- Platforms, and a uniform entrance point. As a part of education-portal the NIP it serves as the main collaboration infrastructure. References The development of the platforms is guided by co- [1] Amunts K, Ebell C, Muller J, Telefont M, Knoll A, design projects where neuroscientific investigators and Lippert T.: The Human Brain Project: Creating a IT specialists collaborate. After the Ramp-up phase of European research infrastructure to decode the the HBP from 2013 to 2016, the platforms were human brain. Neuron 2016; 92 (3): 574–81 doi: released in March 2016, can be accessed by test-users: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.046 https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/. [2] Axer M, Amunts K, Grässel D, Palm C, Dammers The NIP is conceptualized in such a way, that J, Axer H, Pietrzyk U, Zilles K.: A novel approach researchers from other countries can share their data, to the human connectome: Ultra-high resolution tools and expertise, to decode the human brain. This mapping of fiber tracts in the brain. 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Trans Biomed Circuits Syst 2017; 11 (1):128-142 Four European Tier 0 supercomputer centers doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2016.2579164. Epub 2016 currently are members of the consortium of the HBP: Sep 9 the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC) in Spain, the Consorzio Interuniversitario per le Applicazioni di [5] Falotico E, Vannucci L, Ambrosano A, Albanese Supercalcolo per Università e Ricerca (CINECA) in U, Ulbrich S, Vasquez Tieck JC, Hinkel G, Kaiser Italy, the Centro Svizzero di Calcolo Scientifico J, Peric I, Denninger O, Cauli N, Kirtay M, (CSCS) in Lugano, Switzerland, and the Jülich Roennau A, Klinker G, Von Arnim A, Guyot L, Supercomputing Centre (JSC) in Germany. 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Philos The convergence of neuroscience and ICT that the Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 May 19; Human Brain Project envisions in the long run depends 370(1668): 20140171. doi: on training a new generation of young researchers to 10.1098/rstb.2014.0171 be fluent in both areas. To this end, the HBP Education [7] Vogelstein, J. T. & Neuro Cloud Consortium: To Programme offers online courses, advanced HBP the Cloud! A Grassroots Proposal to Accelerate Schools, an annual HBP Student Conference and Brain Science Discovery. Neuron. 2016 Nov Young Researchers Events. 2;92(3):622-627. doi: All educational offers are made available through 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.10.033 its website: 149