Full project name: HetERogeneous sEmantic Data integratIon for the guT-bRain interplaY

Funding Programme and Grant Agreement number: Horizon Europe, GA No. 101137074

Duration: 48 months

Consortium: Universita Degli Studi di Padova, Sirma Ai Ead, Surf Bv, Stichting Radboud Universitair Medisch Centrum, Observa Associazione, Fundacion Empresa Universidad Gallega, Universita Degli Studi Di Torino, Aalborg Universitet, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Technische Universitaet Graz, Fundacio Centre de Regulacio Genomica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Europese Vereniging Voor Professionals en Patienten met Als, Regents of The University of Colorado, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Consorcio para la Explotacion del Centro Nacional de Analisis Genomico, Haute Ecole Specialisee de Suisse Occidentale

Short description:

HEREDITARY aims to significantly transform the way we approach disease detection, prepare treatment response, and explore medical knowledge by building a robust, interoperable, trustworthy and secure framework that integrates multimodal health data (including genetic data) while ensuring compliance with cross-national privacy-preserving policies. The HEREDITARY framework comprises five interconnected layers, from federated data processing and semantic data integration to visual interaction. By utilizing advanced federated analytics and learning workflows, we aim to identify new risk factors and treatment responses focusing, as exploratory use cases, on neurodegenerative and gut microbiome related disorders. HEREDITARY is harmonizing and linking heterogeneous sources of clinical, genomic, and environmental data on a large scale. This enables clinicians, researchers, and policymakers to understand these diseases better and develop more effective treatment strategies. HEREDITARY adheres to the citizen science paradigm to ensure that patients and the public have a primary role in guiding scientific and medical research while maintaining full control of their data. Our goal is to change the way we approach healthcare by unlocking insights that were previously impossible to obtain.

European Brain Council (EBC) Role: EBC contributes to this important project by leading liaison activities with relevant EU and global initiatives, such as the COMFORTage Project and NextGen Project, to increase cooperation in the health data field and maximise impact.

As part of the Project, EBC was thrilled to organise a World Café that took place during the 5th edition of the Brain Innovation Days, on October 15-16th, 2025, in Brussels (Belgium)! This session focused on brainstorming solutions to the challenges identified in the HEREDITARY project, relating to topics such as artificial intelligence, data integration, privacy protection and patient engagement.

Website: hereditary-project.eu

Social media: LinkedIn – X – Facebook

Full project name: “FuEl ThE bRaiN In healtThY aging and agE-relateD diseases” ETERNITY

Funding Programme and Grant Agreement number: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), 101072759

Duration: 01/02/2024 – 31/01/2027

Short description:

The worldwide population is ageing and putting our healthcare systems under pressure to cope with age-related diseases. In Europe, there is a need for innovation, knowledge and experts who can prompt significant changes to improve prevention and innovative interventional strategies to counteract altered metabolism in brain during ageing and related disorders. The priority is to ensure brain health throughout life and during ageing. Increased collaboration between academia and private sector is the required milieu to overcome this challenge.

The “FuEl ThE bRaiN In healtThY aging and agE-relateD diseases” ETERNITY will contribute to the strengthening of the European innovation capacity by training a new generation of researchers with experience and full understanding of the requirements of academia, pharmaceutical and food supplement companies, and the society.

ETERNITY research programme will focus on brain metabolism as a highly promising yet under-explored area. Given the complementary expertise, ETERNITY will have excellent opportunities to delineate different pathways underlying impaired brain metabolism to identify novel pharmaceutical targets and/or nutritional interventional strategies to counteract ageing and related disorders.

The early-stage researchers (DCs) will be trained in this environment and provided with a mind-set of future commercial and clinical utilization of their research findings. Apart from the innovative and collaborative approach of the research programme, the DCs will also be provided with a training programme where cutting-edge methodology, innovation and transferable skills are key components.

The trained DCs will have excellent intersectoral and interdisciplinary career opportunities and will, together with the ETERNITY partners, provide a solid ground to tackle one of the major societal challenges of our century: finding therapies to promote brain healthy ageing and delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases.

Coordinator: Universita degli studi di Milano

EBC role in ETERNITY:

EBC will lead activities related to training complementary skills with the aim to bridge science, policy, society and non-academic secondments bringing theory into practice (engagement with key players in the brain space, involvement in advocacy activities in the brain research area, etc.). EBC will also support the ETERNITY dissemination initiatives to raise awareness on the economic and social benefits provided by the ETERNITY research results​.

Website: ETERNITY