A Brain for Europe : Big Science, Big Models, and the Politics of Unification

How the effort to build a unified model of the human brain helps us reconsider the tension between unification and pluralism in science and in Europe.

The Human Brain Project was launched by the European Commission in 2013 to build a digital research infrastructure that scientists across the world could use to unify neuroscientific knowledge. One of its goals was to build a detailed, large-scale model and simulation of the human brain. But less than a year after its launch, hundreds of scientists signed a letter that questioned the project’s governance and the feasibility of its scientific goals. Launched with the intention of unifying the neuroscience community of Europe, the Human Brain Project instead brought the cracks to the surface. Now, following the conclusion of the project, the unified model that the project envisioned has not been built. A Brain for Europe explores why.

Tara Mahfoud describes how debates over the political value of unification, pluralism, and integration have shaped debates and practices over how to build models of the brain in Europe. The book draws on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in neuroscience laboratories in the UK, France and Germany; project meetings, workshops and conferences in Austria, Spain, Italy, and The Netherlands; and the project’s headquarters in Switzerland. The book is an up-close account of how the effort to build a unified model of the human brain serves as a lens through which to view the tension between unification and pluralism in science and in Europe.