The Human Brain Project (HBP) is a candidate project in the European Union's FET Flagship Program, funded by the ICT Program in the Seventh Framework Program. The project will develop a new integrated strategy for understanding the human brain and a novel research platform that will integrate all the data and knowledge we can acquire about the structure and function of the brain and use it to build unifying models that can be validated by simulations running on supercomputers. The project will drive the development of supercomputing for the life sciences, generate new neuroscientific data as a benchmark for modeling, develop radically new tools for informatics, modeling and simulation, and build virtual laboratories for collaborative basic and clinical studies, drug simulation and virtual prototyping of neuroprosthetic, neuromorphic, and robotic devices. (C) Selection and peer-review under responsibility of FET11 conference organizers and published by Elsevier B.V.