The Big Brain Projects

The Editors July 1, 2026 3 min read

The US BRAIN Initiative, the EU Human Brain Project, China and Japan's brain programmes, the Allen Institute, the Human Connectome Project and the 2023 human brain cell atlas: neuroscience as big science.

In plain English

Since the 2010s, governments and foundations have funded huge brain research projects. They build new tools, map brain cells and connections, and share enormous datasets. Some, like the BRAIN Initiative's cell census, have produced landmark maps; others, like the Human Brain Project, have been controversial.

Beginner level: No background needed. Everyday language, everyday examples — the place to start.

Neuroscience has increasingly become "big science", with large, coordinated, data-sharing projects alongside individual labs.

The Allen Institute

Founded in 2003 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle produced the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas (2006) of gene expression across the mouse brain, then human brain atlases, mouse connectivity maps and large open datasets of neuron types and activity — all freely available. It also helped lead the MICrONS connectome project.

The Human Connectome Project

Launched in 2009–2010 by the US National Institutes of Health, the Human Connectome Project used advanced MRI to map brain networks in over a thousand healthy adults, producing a widely used 2016 cortical map with 180 areas per hemisphere.

The BRAIN Initiative

Announced by US President Barack Obama in April 2013, BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) focused on developing tools to record, map and manipulate neural circuits. Results include Neuropixels-style probes, improved imaging, the mouse brain cell census, and in October 2023 a package of 21 papers from the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network describing more than 3,000 cell types in the human brain.

The Human Brain Project

The European Union's Human Brain Project (2013–2023), with around a billion euros of funding, aimed to build ICT platforms for neuroscience, simulation and medicine. It was criticised early on — in a 2014 open letter signed by hundreds of neuroscientists — for an overemphasis on simulating the whole brain and for its governance, and was restructured. Its legacy includes the EBRAINS research infrastructure and detailed atlases such as the Julich-Brain cytoarchitectonic atlas.

Around the world

Japan's Brain/MINDS (from 2014) focused on the marmoset, a small primate. The China Brain Project (launched around 2016) emphasises cognition, brain disorders and brain-inspired AI. Korea, Canada and Australia have national programmes, and the International Brain Initiative coordinates between them. Large population datasets such as UK Biobank, which has scanned the brains of tens of thousands of participants, link brain imaging with genetics and health.

The value of open data

A shared theme is open data: atlases, connectomes and recordings released publicly so researchers anywhere can analyse them — a major shift in how neuroscience is done.

Make it simple

Everyday examples & things to try

Real world

An atlas anyone can browse

Many of these projects release free online tools: you can explore gene expression in the mouse brain, fly through a reconstructed connectome, or view a 3D atlas of the human cortex — the kind of data that once took a career to collect.

Key takeaways

The Allen Institute (2003) and Human Connectome Project (2009–10) pioneered open brain atlases.
The US BRAIN Initiative (2013) produced tools and a 3,000+ cell-type human brain census (2023).
The EU Human Brain Project (2013–2023) was controversial and left the EBRAINS infrastructure.

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About this project

NeuroScience Decoded is an independent, plain-language encyclopedia of the brain and nervous system. It covers what neuroscience is, five thousand years of its history and the people who made it, how neurons and synapses work, brain chemistry and anatomy, development, the senses, movement, memory, emotion, sleep and consciousness, neurological and mental health conditions, the tools scientists use, the overlap with artificial intelligence, treatments, and the ethics and future of the field.

Every entry is written to be understood by a curious reader with no science background. Each one is tagged Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, opens with an In plain English summary, offers everyday analogies and try-it-yourself examples, ends with key takeaways, and links to the concepts worth reading first.