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Correction: Europe-Science Bonanza story

Thursday - 1/31/2013, 7:00pm  ET

BRUSSELS (AP) -- In a story Jan. 28 about a European Union science award, The Associated Press reported erroneously that EUR1 billion euros was equivalent to $1.34 million. The correct conversion is that EUR1 billion euros equals $1.34 billion.

A corrected version of the story is below:

2 science projects win up to $1.3 billion each

European projects to model human brain, explore graphene win up to EUR1 B ($1.34 billion) each


Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Two European science projects -- one to map the intricacies of the human brain, the other to explore the extraordinary carbon-based material graphene -- won an EU technology contest Monday, getting up to EUR1 billion ($1.34 billion) each over the next decade.

The projects were selected from 26 proposals.



In addition, the increased knowledge about how the brain works -- and how it manages billions of processing units and trillions of synapses while consuming no more power than a light bulb --may lead to "a paradigm shift for computing," the European Commission, the European Union's executive branch, said in a statement.

"The economic and industrial impact of such a shift is potentially enormous," the commission said.


"The pharmaceutical industry won't do this, computing companies won't do this -- there's too much fundamental science," Markram said. "This is one project which absolutely needs public funding."







Each of the projects will initially receive EUR54 million ($73 million) from the European Union's research budget, an amount that will be matched by national governments and other sources. Further funding will depend on whether they reach certain milestones within the first 30 months, but over a decade it could total EUR1 billion ($1.34 billion) each.

In this age of government austerity, the commission promised to monitor the projects carefully so they continue "to be an efficient use of taxpayers' money."



Don Melvin can be reached at .
