Challenge #111

Using supercomputers in brain research.

Advances in the neurosciences now rely heavily on the computing power of modern computers. This is because they have to analyze large volumes of complex data. We are tackling this challenge by developing platforms that harness the immense capacities of supercomputers and are accessible to scientists around the world.

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Participating centers

Since even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been clear that science needs better solutions for sharing and analyzing the growing volume of research data. New systems with enormous computing power promise a clear perspective in the data jungle, but they must offer compatibility between different scientists and disciplines, as well as between different countries.

To this end, Forschungszentrum Jülich is developing technological platforms, starting in brain research. In the future, however, these systems will come to the benefit of medicine and the life sciences sector as a whole. In the European Human Brain Project, scientists have built a digital infrastructure for this purpose, called EBRAINS.

EBRAINS enables data-intensive brain research from a laptop, using cloud-based computing capabilities and tools. The system is constantly growing; it is currently being expanded into medicine, for example, together with Charité. In the future, scientists will be able to conduct research with inpatient data from hospitals throughout the EU and in compliance with data protection laws.

EBRAINS is based on FENIX, a network that brings together Europe’s leading supercomputing centers, including the facilities Jülich. The system is open to all scientists who work with substantial amounts of data, including those researching COVID-19.

(Photo: Axer et al., Forschungszentrum Jülich)