The Human Brain Project: The Foresight Lab
The Human Brain Project (HBP) is building a research infrastructure to help advance neuroscience, medicine and computing. It is one of four FET (Future and Emerging Tehcnology) Flagships, the largest scientific projects ever funded by the European Union under FP7.
The 10-year Project began in 2013 and directly employs some 500 scientists at more than 100 universities, teaching hospitals and research centres across Europe. See full list of partners.
The Foresight Lab at King's is a part of the HBP's Subproject12 and focuses on identifying and evaluating the future impact of new knowledge and technologies generated by the HBP using a range of methods including action research, interviews, participant observation, literature reviews, questionnaire surveys and expert workshops.
Funding
The timeline of the HBP are split into multiple phases, each of which are covered by a separate grant agreement. King's College London is now engaged in phase two Specific Grant Agreement (SGA2) spanning the period of 01 April 2018 to 31 March 2020.
The ramp-up phase of the HBP ran from October 2013 to March 2016 and it was funded under the European Commission (EC) FP7. The remainder of the project is funded under the EC Horizon 2020. The first phase fell under the Specific Grant Agreement (SGA1) that ran from 01 April 2016 to 31 March 2018.
Below is the breakdown of the funding:
- Ramp-Up Phase: €771,336 (October 2013 - March 2016)
- Special Grant Agreement 1: €818,938 (April 2016 - March 2018)
- Special Grant Agreement 2: €861,806 (April 2018 - March 2020)
Aims
The goal of the project is to build a completely new ICT infrastructure for neuroscience, and for brain related research in medicine and computing catalysing a global collaborative effort to understand the human brain and its diseases and ultimately to emulate its computational capabilities. A 10-year European initiative to understand the human brain enabling advances in neuroscience, medicine and future computing.
Methods
- This project identifies and evaluate the potential impact of the new knowledge and technologies produced by the HBP, in terms of benefits to European citizens, European industry, the European economy and European society.
- Our Foresight Lab conducts systematic foresight exercises to identify and evaluate these impacts. We adapt and develop established foresight methods already in use in different areas of medicine and ICT, including modelling, horizon scanning and scenario planning.
Consulting systematically with researchers, potential users of new technologies, civil society groups, regulators and other stakeholders, the lab develops a set of social and economic scenarios, which serve as frameworks for evaluating the possible consequences of the HBP on different areas of society. The scenarios, with five, ten, and twenty year time horizons, consider possible impacts in industry, employment, the health services, the legal system, education, the military and police, the media, leisure and consumer culture, psychiatry and self-help. Developments in these areas are monitored over the course of the HBP, and actual impacts are fed back into Foresight models to increase accuracy and enable real-time technology assessment. The results are disseminated to researchers throughout the HBP, and debated by the HBP board, WP leaders and researchers. These discussions help to fine-tune HBP research, increasing awareness of potential risks, helping to manage these risks and maximising clinical, industrial and social benefits.
Summary of Findings
Work that has informed The Human Brain Project: The Foresight Lab includes:
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Aicardi, C. B., Fothergill, T., Rainey, S., Stahl, B. and Harris, E. (2018). Accompanying technology development in the Human Brain Project: From foresight to ethics management. Futures, 102, 114-124.
Aicardi, C., Reinsborough, M. and Rose, N. (2017). The integrated ethics and society programme of the Human Brain Project: reflecting on an ongoing experience. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5(1), 13-37.
Reinsborough, M. (2017). Science fiction and science futures: considering the role of fictions in public engagement and science communication work. Journal of Science Communication, 16(4), 1-8.
Rose, N. (2016). Reading the Human Brain: How the Mind Became Legible. Body & Society, 22(2), 140-177.
Salter, B., Zhou, Y., Datta, S. and Salter, C. (2016) Bioinformatics and the politics of innovation in the life sciences: science and the state in the UK, China, and India. Science, Technology and Human Values, 41(5), 793–826.
Aicardi, C., Del Savio, L., Dove, E. S., Lucivero, F., Tempini, N. and Prainsack, B. (2016). Emerging ethical issues regarding digital health data. On the World Medical Association Draft Declaration on Ethical Considerations Regarding Health Databases and Biobanks. Croatian Medical Journal, 57(2), 207-213.
Aicardi, C. and Crick, F. (2016). Cross-worlds influencer: A narrative model to historicize big bioscience. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 55, 83-95.
Rose, N. (2015). Neuroscience and the future for mental health? Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 25(2), 95-100.
Rose, N. (2014). The Human Brain Project: Social and Ethical Challenges. Neuron, 82(6), 1212-1215.
Aicardi, C. (2014). Of the Helmholtz Club, South-Californian seedbed for visual and cognitive neuroscience. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 45, 1-11.
Mahfoud, T. (2014). Extending the mind: a review of ethnographies of neuroscience practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(359), 1-9.
Rose, N. and Abi-Rached, J. Governing through the Brain: Neuropolitics, Neuroscience and Subjectivity. Cambridge Anthropology, 32(1), 3-23.
Rose, N. and Abi-Rached, J. (2014). Historiciser les neurosciences. In B, Chamak. And B, Moutaud. (Eds.), Neurosciences et Société (51-76). Paris: Armand Colin
Rose, N. (2014). What is diagnosis for? (Japanese Translation), In Gendai-Shiso (Review of Contemporary Thought). English version is available at: http://nikolasrose.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Rose-2013-What-is-diagnosis-for-IoP-revised-July-2013.pdf
Rose, N. (2014). The Human Sciences in a Biological Age (Portuguese). Polis e Psique, 4(2) 3-4.
Rose, N. (2013). The Human Sciences in a Biological Age. Theory, Culture and Society, 30(1), 3-34.
Rose, Nikolas. (2013). Democracy in the contemporary life sciences. BioSocieties, 7(4), 459-472.
Books and Edited Volumes
Mahfoud, T., McLean, S. and Rose, N. (eds.). (2017). Vital Models: The Making and Use of Models in the Brain Sciences. Progress in Brain Research, 233 (1st eds). London: Academic Press.
Aicardi, C. and García-Sancho, M. (eds.). (2016). Towards future archives and historiographies of ‘big biology’. In Ankeny, R. A. (ed.), Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 55, 41-44.
Rose, N. and Abi-Rached, J. (2013). Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind. Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Conferences
Events
2015
9 October. Webinars: Future ICT and robotics in the Human Brain Project. Danish Board of Technology Foundation. (Co-organiser).
The aim of the webinars was to investigate the issues of cognitive computing and machine learning,brain-computer interfaces and neuroprosthetics, intelligent machines, and the psychological and ethical issues of human –robot interactions. More information on the webinars.
26 September-1 October. Annual Human Brain project meeting, Madrid, Spain. (Organiser)
11-13 June. Building a Neuroscience Community: community modelling and data repositories. (Organiser)
The purpose of the workshop was to support the growth of collaborative neuroscience with a specific focus on computer modelling communities. The intention was to give these communities an opportunity to shape the future work of HBP platform developers and to build collaborations in directions beneficial to neuroscience.
2014
7 May, Webinar: disease signatures and personalised medicine: social, ethical and legal issues. Danish Board of Technology Foundation. (Co-organiser)
7 May, Webinar: data federation and protection: social, ethical and legal issues. Danish Board of Technology Foundation. (Co-organiser)
9 October, Expert dialogue on multi-level data federation in the Human Brain Project. Danish Board of Technology, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Co-organiser)
29 September - 1 October. Annual Human Brain project meeting, Heidelberg, Germany. (Organiser)
Work that has informed The Human Brain Project: The Foresight Lab includes:
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Aicardi, C. B., Fothergill, T., Rainey, S., Stahl, B. and Harris, E. (2018). Accompanying technology development in the Human Brain Project: From foresight to ethics management. Futures, 102, 114-124.
Aicardi, C., Reinsborough, M. and Rose, N. (2017). The integrated ethics and society programme of the Human Brain Project: reflecting on an ongoing experience. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 5(1), 13-37.
Reinsborough, M. (2017). Science fiction and science futures: considering the role of fictions in public engagement and science communication work. Journal of Science Communication, 16(4), 1-8.
Rose, N. (2016). Reading the Human Brain: How the Mind Became Legible. Body & Society, 22(2), 140-177.
Salter, B., Zhou, Y., Datta, S. and Salter, C. (2016) Bioinformatics and the politics of innovation in the life sciences: science and the state in the UK, China, and India. Science, Technology and Human Values, 41(5), 793–826.
Aicardi, C., Del Savio, L., Dove, E. S., Lucivero, F., Tempini, N. and Prainsack, B. (2016). Emerging ethical issues regarding digital health data. On the World Medical Association Draft Declaration on Ethical Considerations Regarding Health Databases and Biobanks. Croatian Medical Journal, 57(2), 207-213.
Aicardi, C. and Crick, F. (2016). Cross-worlds influencer: A narrative model to historicize big bioscience. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 55, 83-95.
Rose, N. (2015). Neuroscience and the future for mental health? Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 25(2), 95-100.
Rose, N. (2014). The Human Brain Project: Social and Ethical Challenges. Neuron, 82(6), 1212-1215.
Aicardi, C. (2014). Of the Helmholtz Club, South-Californian seedbed for visual and cognitive neuroscience. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 45, 1-11.
Mahfoud, T. (2014). Extending the mind: a review of ethnographies of neuroscience practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(359), 1-9.
Rose, N. and Abi-Rached, J. Governing through the Brain: Neuropolitics, Neuroscience and Subjectivity. Cambridge Anthropology, 32(1), 3-23.
Rose, N. and Abi-Rached, J. (2014). Historiciser les neurosciences. In B, Chamak. And B, Moutaud. (Eds.), Neurosciences et Société (51-76). Paris: Armand Colin
Rose, N. (2014). What is diagnosis for? (Japanese Translation), In Gendai-Shiso (Review of Contemporary Thought). English version is available at: http://nikolasrose.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Rose-2013-What-is-diagnosis-for-IoP-revised-July-2013.pdf
Rose, N. (2014). The Human Sciences in a Biological Age (Portuguese). Polis e Psique, 4(2) 3-4.
Rose, N. (2013). The Human Sciences in a Biological Age. Theory, Culture and Society, 30(1), 3-34.
Rose, Nikolas. (2013). Democracy in the contemporary life sciences. BioSocieties, 7(4), 459-472.
Books and Edited Volumes
Mahfoud, T., McLean, S. and Rose, N. (eds.). (2017). Vital Models: The Making and Use of Models in the Brain Sciences. Progress in Brain Research, 233 (1st eds). London: Academic Press.
Aicardi, C. and García-Sancho, M. (eds.). (2016). Towards future archives and historiographies of ‘big biology’. In Ankeny, R. A. (ed.), Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 55, 41-44.
Rose, N. and Abi-Rached, J. (2013). Neuro: The New Brain Sciences and the Management of the Mind. Oxford: Princeton University Press.
Conferences
Events
2015
9 October. Webinars: Future ICT and robotics in the Human Brain Project. Danish Board of Technology Foundation. (Co-organiser).
The aim of the webinars was to investigate the issues of cognitive computing and machine learning,brain-computer interfaces and neuroprosthetics, intelligent machines, and the psychological and ethical issues of human –robot interactions. More information on the webinars.
26 September-1 October. Annual Human Brain project meeting, Madrid, Spain. (Organiser)
11-13 June. Building a Neuroscience Community: community modelling and data repositories. (Organiser)
The purpose of the workshop was to support the growth of collaborative neuroscience with a specific focus on computer modelling communities. The intention was to give these communities an opportunity to shape the future work of HBP platform developers and to build collaborations in directions beneficial to neuroscience.
2014
7 May, Webinar: disease signatures and personalised medicine: social, ethical and legal issues. Danish Board of Technology Foundation. (Co-organiser)
7 May, Webinar: data federation and protection: social, ethical and legal issues. Danish Board of Technology Foundation. (Co-organiser)
9 October, Expert dialogue on multi-level data federation in the Human Brain Project. Danish Board of Technology, Copenhagen, Denmark. (Co-organiser)
29 September - 1 October. Annual Human Brain project meeting, Heidelberg, Germany. (Organiser)
Affiliations
Project websites
Funding
Funding Body: European Commission
Amount: €771,336
Period: October 2013 - March 2016
Funding Body: European Commission
Amount: €818,938
Period: April 2016 - March 2018
Funding Body: European Commission
Amount: €861,806
Period: April 2018 - March 2020