The European Brain Research Area  project — EBRA — was created as a catalysing platform for brain research stakeholders (researchers, clinicians, patients, governments, funders and public institutions) to streamline and better co-ordinate brain research across Europe while fostering global initiatives.

The highly diversified nature of European public research, defined as an area of “shared” policy responsibility between individual countries and the Commission, represents a considerable obstacle in the European Research Area, particularly acute in the field of brain research, where the complexity of brain imposes a joint and coordinated research effort to advance our understanding of brain and its disorders.

The EU and its Member States have made considerable investments in brain research, leading to a significant increase of initiatives in this area, particularly under Horizon 2020 and many large research initiatives. Although these initiatives have generated considerable amounts of knowledge and innovative approaches, the complexity of the challenge requires more coordinated efforts to avoid fragmentation, identify gaps and highlight priorities, thus fostering translation into new health interventions.

Over the next three years, the EBRA Consortium will work to foster alignment and better co-ordination of research strategies across European and global brain initiatives; facilitate the emergence of research projects in specific areas in active clusters, and provide them with support for effective collaboration, including enabling sharing of data and access to research infrastructures; and increase the visibility of the brain research portfolio as a whole and promote the uptake of EBRA results to key stakeholders.