EBRAINS at the Brain Innovation Days: Advancing Mental Health and Research Collaboration in Europe

Stéphane Hogan, Head of Unit for Health Research at the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), highlighted the European Commission has already invested €660 million across 94 Horizon Europe projects, with over 50 projects dedicated to brain health, showing Europe’s strong and growing commitment to neuroscience and mental health research. 

EBRAINS actively participated with a dedicated booth and presentations across sessions, showcasing how its digital infrastructure and tools support collaborative, data-driven brain research. 

Innovation in mental health: towards personalised care 

Mental health was a central focus, reflecting the growing need for coordinated action and innovation, with several sessions exploring how AI, brain modelling, and digital twins can help develop more effective, personalised approaches to care. 

During the Innovation Showcase Spotlight, Irina Pavlov, EBRAINS Project Manager, presented the Virtual Brain Twin (VBT) project, an EU-funded Horizon Europe initiative coordinated by EBRAINS. The project introduces a pioneering approach in psychiatric care: creating a “virtual twin” of a schizophrenic patient’s brain, aiming to help clinicians tailor treatments, optimise medication, and explore alternatives like brain stimulation or lifestyle changes. The project is developing a personalised digital ecosystem, embedded within the EBRAINS infrastructure, by integrating clinical and big data, brain modelling, high-performance computers, AI tools, and multiscale simulations. 

Margherita Fanos, Head of Sector at the AI Office (DG CNECT, European Commission), emphasised that "mental health is a key priority for the Commission’’, highlighting that the Virtual Human Twins (VHT) initiative is a promising technology for predicting behaviour and tailoring treatments, and noting that the VBT project is amongst the Horizon Europe projects advancing it.  

Building capacity for research: data, collaboration, and skills 

At the CSA BrainHealth Final Conference, held alongside the Brain Innovation Days, Prof. Philippe Vernier, Joint CEO of EBRAINS, joined an international panel on “Building Capacities for Research” which focused on how to strengthen research capacity through data sharing, digital infrastructures, skills, and global collaboration. He highlighted three key priorities to sustain and scale up Europe’s brain research: 

• A joint roadmap for data sharing: collaboration across research infrastructures is crucial to define and implement an effective European data-sharing strategy; 

• Training and digital literacy: neuroscience knowledge and digital skills should be widely integrated for researchers, clinicians, and students to use data effectively;  

• Practical use cases: developing shared use cases will help demonstrate how infrastructures can exchange data effectively and address real-life scientific and clinical challenges. 

Prof. Vernier also underlined the importance of aligning these efforts with the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which offers the regulatory and ethical framework to foster interoperability and secure data federation across Europe, ensuring neuroscience data can be reused to advance clinical innovation. He and the international panellists stressed that global data sharing and data federation efforts across continents are essential to accelerate scientific progress. 

Looking ahead: strengthening Europe’s brain research ecosystem 

A major highlight of the event was the announcement of the European Partnership for Brain Health, set to launch in January 2026 with a €150 million budget. The partnership will bring together over 50 organisations from more than 30 countries to advance brain health research, prevention, and innovation, with EBRAINS as a key research infrastructure here. 

The discussions reinforced a shared understanding: sustained EU funding, public-private investments, and cross-sector collaboration are essential to translate scientific innovation into tangible benefits for mental health. 

During the two days, EBRAINS engaged with a broad range of stakeholders, including researchers, industry representatives, policymakers and NGOs interested in how our digital infrastructure can accelerate progress in mental health and brain research. At the EBRAINS booth, visitors discovered the EBRAINS 2.0 and Virtual Brain Twin projects, as well as various Open Science services supporting data sharing and brain simulation, amongst others. 

Learn more about EBRAINS and sign up to access its digital ecosystem here.

Learn more about the Virtual Brain Twin project here.