Infographic: Obama’s BRAIN Initiative

An infographic explains President Obama’s new $100M BRAIN Initiative.

The White House calls the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) “a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind.”

Obama paralleled the BRAIN Initiative with the Human Genome Project, a revolution in genomics that yielded an impressive 140 dollar return on each dollar invested. Tens of thousands of people are now employed in jobs created by HGP scientific and technological advances — and that number continues to rise.

In a statement, the White House says that “like sequencing the human genome, President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative provides an opportunity to rally innovative capacities in every corner of the Nation and leverage the diverse skills, tools, and resources from a variety of sectors to have a lasting positive impact on lives, the economy, and our national security.” After all, and according to Mr. President, “ideas are what power our economy.”

While $100 million for the BRAIN initiative is only 1/38th the funding of the HGP, this represents an important step forward in catalyzing research that will transform how we understand ourselves.