EBRAINS presented to EU Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen

During a visit at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Henna Virkkunen learned how the EBRAINS research infrastructure is enabling neuroscientists to use the new generation of supercomputing and push the boundraries of AI.

Jülich is the site of the recently announced JUPITER AI Factory, which is part of the network of AI factories in the European Union. As European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen oversees the Commissions portfolio for Digital and Frontier Technologies, which shapes strategic policies in digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

EU Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen with EBRAINS Joint-CEO Prof. Katrin Amunts — Copyright: FZJ/Kurt Steinhausen

Together with EBRAINS joint-CEO Katrin Amunts the commissioner visited the brain mapping labs of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, where EBRAINS powers research in the emerging field of NeuroAI. Leading scientists presented EBRAINS’ supercomputing-enabled brain atlas, high-resolution neural network imaging and the ongoing work on foundation models for brain science.

The Commissioner expressed enthusiasm for the scientific work: “This research is not only relevant for Europe, but globally.” EBRAINS joint-CEO Katrin Amunts emphasised the role of European collaboration: “We are in a perfect position to use Exascale computing for new breakthroughs in brain science and AI. We have the large data, the software, the community in Europe, and very strong use cases, all thanks to the long-standing support of the EU.”