The
Australian Government has announced funding to establish the Centre for Neural
Engineering at the University
of Melbourne.The funding was an initiative of the
Education Investment Fund (EIF) in the 2009-10 Federal budget.The second round of the EIF called for
applications for innovative and transformative projects in research, higher
education and vocational education and training to help equip Australians with
the high level skills and knowledge necessary in an increasingly competitive
world economy.
When
Electrical Engineering researcher and Future Generation Professor Jonathan
Manton returned to the University
of Melbourne just under a
year ago, his mission was to establish a research centre which would bring
together researchers from the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine and Science,
in line with the world-wide convergence of the physical sciences and the life
sciences. A significant milestone was reached in early May when the
Federal Budget allocated $17.5M in infrastructure funding to the Centre for
Neural Engineering.
Combined with the University
of Melbourne's
contribution, the total amount of infrastructure funding is $34.2M, which has
been earmarked to:
Renovate an existing
building which will become the home of the Centre for Neural Engineering
Establish a
Data Centre, which will allow researchers to store and manipulate massive
amounts of scientific data
Establish a Laboratory
to conduct Neural Engineering experiments
The Centre for Neural Engineering will take a systems engineering approach to
the study of how networks of biological neurons work. The fundamental research
conducted by the Centre is expected to enhance our abilities to:
repair
biological neural networks when they go wrong;
augment
biological neural networks with artificial devices;
develop
prostheses such as a bionic eye;
understand
(i.e. be able to encode and decode) the neural code.
* The ICT for Life Sciences Forum is grateful to the Florey Neuroscience
Institutes for permission to use the high resolution microscope image of
the brain.
