Bar-Ilan University has won a €3.7 million Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s (EMJM) grant through the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center to establish a groundbreaking graduate program in Brain and Data Science. This is the first time an Israeli university has led and won this prestigious grant.
Bar-Ilan led a consortium of five top-ranked European universities to submit a funding proposal to the EU to establish a unique program to attract advanced students from around the world. As a result, Bar-Ilan will manage the program and the funding, in cooperation with all the partners, and the grant will be spread over a six-year period.
“This is a truly strategic event for our university and for Israeli higher education in general,” said Prof. Moshe Lewenstein, Deputy President of Bar-Ilan. “All of the most prestigious universities in Europe lead such projects. This project will have a deep impact on all activity related to advanced teaching and internationalization.”
Bar-Ilan University’s Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center (left)
Bar-Ilan University’s International School was a key player in helping the Brain Research Center secure this EMJM grant, which will enable the partner universities to offer scholarships to exceptional candidates who apply for the joint MSc in Brain and Data Science through their home universities. EU scholarships cover the cost of a student’s participation in the program, travel, and a living allowance.
“Students will study in two or more partner universities over two years,” said Prof. Alon Korngreen, Head of BIU’s Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center and coordinator of the project. “In addition, most of them will have internships in companies or other organizations to gain practical experience, which will add to their education.”
The consortium includes the University of Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical Institute), Portugal; University of Padua, Italy; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Netherlands; University of Jyväskylä, Finland; and University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Bar-Ilan University and Erasmus+
Bar-Ilan University has been highly active in many areas of Erasmus+ since 2014. This program is the European Union’s premier initiative to support education and training through various projects between the universities in partner countries such as the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility (ICM) or Student Mobility (exchange) program, Capacity-Building Projects (CBP) and Strategic Partnerships, and Jean Monnet Centers of Excellence.
Daniel Schuval at the University of Lisbon in October 2019 to establish the initial relationship with Bar-Ilan University
“This achievement is, in a sense, the culmination of Bar-Ilan’s many successful years in the Erasmus+ program,” said Daniel Schuval, the International School’s Director of Academic Partnerships and Projects and the Erasmus+ Institutional Coordinator for BIU. “We began our activity as partners in an exchange consortium and have since participated in virtually every type of project within the EU’s framework. After participating in hundreds of projects and exchanging thousands of participants, we now find that we have reached the summit.
“The International School is proud to have partnered with the Brain Research Center to achieve this milestone. From our network of engaged and committed partners throughout Europe, we developed a multi-disciplinary team that includes global experts in teaching, research, and project management. This group epitomizes the true vision of Erasmus+ and our aspirations for education in the 21st century. This project will play a pivotal role in further shaping our approach not only to Erasmus+ but also to international partnerships around the world.”
Why Combine Brain Science and Data Science?
“The importance of combining two such innovative fields of study cannot be overestimated,” Prof. Korngreen said. “Modern neuroscience has reached a point where progress requires analyzing vast amounts of data, a skill not traditionally provided to neuroscientists,”
“At the same time, data scientists lack specialized training in neuroscience and as a result, are missing a significant perspective that influences the quality and depth of their insights.”
During Bar-Ilan’s recent visit to Finland. L-R: Prof. Alon Korngreen, Head of BIU’s Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, and Tuija Koponen, Head of the International Office at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland
Prof. Korngreen and his partners in this initiative believe this is something that should actually be addressed even earlier – at the beginning of a student’s academic studies.
“A new academic trend where brain science is introduced as a separate educational track at the undergraduate level further hinders the maturity of specialists in the field as their education lacks essential features,” he said. “If this type of joint degree was available to undergraduates, I believe the possibilities for innovation and cutting-edge discoveries would be enormous. But one step at a time.”
Developments of this nature drive the pressing market demand for combined brain and data expertise in neurotech, technological innovation, healthcare, and education, all of which present a unique opportunity for educational innovation in the form of an out-of-the-box academic pathway focusing on multidisciplinary scholars’ intellectual mobility into the growing brain-data science field.
Impact Through Multidisciplinary Research
In modern science, breakthroughs often occur at the intersection of multiple disciplines. The proposed project presents a highly needed yet lacking synergistic training program in brain and data science.
Prof. Moshe Lewenstein, BIU’s Deputy President, presents the university to a group of Erasmus+ partners from various institutions and countries throughout Europe
It aims to develop an integrated multidisciplinary Brain and Data Science curriculum to cultivate researchers with in-depth knowledge in both fields. Students will be trained in foundational brain science and data science during the first program year while applying these skills to analyze neural data during their second year. They will study and research in leading institutions and countries.
This holistic approach to students’ training will enable them to forge new mindsets and approaches while increasing individual contributions to a knowledge-based economy and society. Introducing this program to European higher education institutions will create a new generation of multidisciplinary scholars, highly skilled in investigating the most complex problem faced by the human race: the human mind and brain in health and disease.
This grant follows the September launch of the new joint MSc in Brain and Data Science between Bar-Ilan University’s Brain Research Center and the University of Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST).
