Editorial What Lies Ahead for Neuroethics Scholarship and Education in Light of the Human Brain Projects? Karen S. Rommelfanger, Emory University L. Syd M Johnson, Michigan Technological University In 2013, both the European Commission (EC) and the U.S. government announced major funding initiatives designed to promote the understanding of humanity through neuro- science. The EC’s Human Brain Project (https://www. humanbrainproject.eu) seeks to map billions of neurons and trillions of synapses to build a computer model of the human brain within the next 10 years. President Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative (http://www.nih.gov/sci- ence/brain/) aims to unlock the mysteries of the brain “and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/ photos-and-video/video/2013/04/02/president-obama- speaks-brain-initiative-and-american-innovation). The EC has promised 1 billion euros for its brain-mapping project, while multiple U.S. federal agencies are expected to con- tribute several billion to the BRAIN Initiative. Neither project has received unqualified support from the neuroscience community. As of October 29, 2014, almost 800 scientists have signed a petition to the Euro- pean Commission to make changes to the Human Brain Project (HBP), citing concerns about the limited methodo- logical focus, and having information technology drive funding priorities in neuroscience research (http://www. neurofuture.eu). The BRAIN Initiative received a similarly lukewarm reception from some neuroscientists, who expressed con- cerns that the top-down nature of the brain-mapping directive would quash bottom-up innovation in neurosci- ence. Others suggest that, unlike the HBP, the BRAIN Ini- tiative lacks clear goals (Shen 2013). One focus of criticism was the comparison of the connectome projects to the Human Genome Project, the international collabo- rative effort that successfully mapped the entire human genome. The Human Genome Project had a developed methodology and a distinct, limited, and achievable goal: to sequence all the base pairs of human DNA. The goal of “understanding the human brain” (http://www.braini- nitiative.nih.gov/index.htm) is both more nebulous and more reductive, grounded in an unverified assumption that mapping the connections between neurons will somehow yield not only an understanding of the exqui- sitely complex human brain, but also the exponentially greater complexity of the human mind (http://www. whitehouse.gov/share/brain-initiative). The dissent in the ranks prompted the former president of the Society for Neuroscience to warn that BRAIN-bashing critiques about initial details of the implementation of the project were premature and might risk the neuroscientific enter- prise in an environment of dwindling funds for the neu- rosciences and sciences in general (Wadmen 2013). Discontent about both the EC and U.S. projects focuses on the legitimacy of their ambitious goals and the way, or unjust way, funds could be allocated. NEUROETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS The U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethi- cal Issues and the International Neuroethics Society have responded to the BRAIN Initiative by outlining new ways that the brain sciences will reinvigorate conversations about human flourishing and raise fresh concerns about how neuroscientific advances will impact daily life, poli- tics, health, and commerce. Priorities listed by U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues “Gray Matters: Integrative Approaches for Neuroscience, Ethics, and Society,” the report by the Presidential Com- mission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, articulates the explicit goal of achieving “integration of ethics early and Address correspondence to Karen S. Rommelfanger, Emory University, Center for Ethics Neuroethics Program, Department of Neurol- ogy, 1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. E-mail: krommel@emory.edu ajob Neuroscience 1 AJOB Neuroscience, 6(1): 1–3, 2015 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 2150-7740 print / 2150-7759 online DOI: 10.1080/21507740.2015.1000158