Obama signals his intention to earmark $100m for brain research in the 2014 budget.
US President Barack Obama has laid out plans to set aside $100m next year for brain research, indicating that major investment could be on the horizon for research-focused universities and their spin-outs.
Due to be outlined in the forthcoming 2014 US budget due next week, the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative will pull funding from a number of sources. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would provide $50m in the first year. Roughly $40m would be provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), while a further $20m will come from the National Science Foundation.
The president said that the US Government will be partnering with the private sector, and called for philanthropists, corporates, and research universities to back the BRAIN Initiative.
Exactly where the money will be invested is currently unclear, and the budget still needs to pass through American government before it can be enacted. However, Obama made it clear in his speech that investments would be made, highlighting that computer chips, GPS technology, and the internet all grew out of government investments in research.
Noting that the Human Genome Project returned $140 for every $1 invested, Obama said: “Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race.”
The White House said that the initiative “will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought”.
