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janrinok writes:

*Update, 11 July, 11:58 a.m.: HBP's Board of Directors and its Executive Committee have responded to the the open letter in a 4-page statement released yesterday. They say they are "saddened" by the letter and say that cognitive neuroscience will still be a part of the HBP's Partnering Projects. The statement expresses the hope that HBP will unite the neuroscience, medical, and computing communities.

An influential group of European neuroscientists is threatening to boycott the Human Brain Project (HBP), the hugely ambitious plan to map the entire human brain in computer models that is slated to receive up to 1 billion Euros in funding from the European Union and its member countries. An open letter published today [neurofuture.eu] that has so far received 213 signatures sharply criticizes the project for having a narrow focus, questions the "quality of the governance," and calls for a tough review and more independent oversight. Without that, they say they will no longer apply for HBP funding.

But Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, who leads the project, says the signatories have trouble accepting the "methodological paradigm shift" toward computer modelling that the project embodies; he adds that many more neuroscientists still support the project.

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