THE MISSION 
The European Brain Research Area project — EBRA — was created as a catalysing initiative 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.
EBRA was designed to respond to the Horizon 2020 call, SC1-HCO-10-2018, entitled “Coordinating European brain research and developing global initiatives”, which called for the reduction of fragmentation and duplication of research efforts, fostering synergies through enhanced coordination of brain research efforts at EU and at global level, improved access to and optimising the use of research infrastructures and data sources by the neuroscience research communities, thus ensuring better exploitation of the large investments made in brain research, achieving critical mass and economies of scale by initiating and fostering new global research initiatives, as well a enabling and accelerating the translation of breakthroughs in brain research into relevant clinical applications.
THE GOALS 
Over the next three years, the EBRA Consortium will work to facilitate efficient collaboration, communication and operational synergies, including transparent procedures and setting up of governance mechanisms; 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.
THE PARTNERS 
The Consortium consists of the EBC membership, the Network of European funding for Neuroscience research (NEURON), Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) and the Human Brain Project (HBP).
WHAT WE DO
PRESIDENT’S WORD
“The European Brain Council (EBC) has recently launched the EBRA (European Brain Research Area) project, which aims to harmonise the different brain research and funding initiatives in Europe. This aims to bring key players around the same table—JPND, the Human Brain Project and ERA-NET NEURON—to discuss how we can achieve that and also reduce fragmentation in both funding and research, as well as to identify where the gaps in knowledge are and how we can facilitate translation. That is an enormous goal, but we hope we can achieve it.”