PIRE-PICCS (Program in Cognitive, Computational and Systems Neuroscience) is a project within the framework of the International Joint Programming Actions call for proposals by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and International Competitiveness. It is to be carried out with centres in Europe and the United States, linked to the Flagship Human Brain Project (HBP) which involves the Centre for Brain and Cognition (CBC), directed by Gustavo Deco, ICREA researcher at the Department of Information and Communication Technologies (DTIC) at UPF.

The project began on 1 December and will have a duration of two years. It will combine research and postgraduate studies in the field of cognitive, computational and systems neuroscience and image science. The funding of the PIRE programme will provide access to a network of international laboratories, such as the Max Planck institutes in Germany, representing an innovative model of research and higher education.

Some areas in which the PIRE programme will catalyse new partnerships are research into non-invasive functional images of auditory and multisensorial areas of the brain in non-human primates; the integration of electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance techniques based on quantitative models to investigate object recognition in humans, as well as the use of active viruses as tracers of transneuronal pathways.

The scientific focus of the project is on the processing of multimodal information extended to the entire cerebral cortex, that is to say, the integration of several signals in order to perform a task, such as sensory stimuli together with memory and attention.

An international bachelor’s degree programme, a summer school and distance learning

The PIRE programme will allow students to learn new approaches for research in neurosciences which they could otherwise not acquire. In addition to laboratory research, students will participate in postgraduate courses at foreign institutions and at the Max Planck international schools.

A PIRE Summer School will be created, at which, in different centres that will alternate, all partners and students, both from the United States and of other nationalities, will participate in order to discuss and forge ahead with their common projects. Also an international distance learning network will be set up. This will allow participants from both the United States and other countries to be in the same classrooms and laboratories simultaneously.

The final aim of the project is expected to create a joint international bachelor’s degree programme. In short, through this PIRE project, researchers and students will have at their disposal a wide range of opportunities for education and research.

A team of independent and experienced assessors will evaluate researchers and will monitor the success of the PIRE programme.