Hybrid neuroscience based on cerebral and muscular information for motor rehabilitation and neuromuscular disorders

The overall objective of the HybridNeuro CSA is to create the bases and support for long-term, well-structured and integrated research and innovation partnership in the field of hybrid neural-machine interfaces between Slovenia, a widening, developing European country and Sweden, United Kingdom and Spain, well established European countries with high research impact. The addressed hybrid neural-machine interfaces utilize noninvasively recorded cerebral and muscular signals and can be used for objective assessment, monitoring, and rehabilitation of neuromuscular disorders. The consortium is composed of University of Maribor (UM), Chalmers University of Technology (CUT), Imperial College London (ICL) and Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). All four partners are experts in biomedical signal processing. In the HybridNeuro project, UMs expertise in muscle-machine interfaces (bottom-up approach to neuromuscular investigations) will be complemented by the excellence of CUT, ICL and UPC in emerging research avenue of brain-machine interfaces (top-down approach to neuromuscular investigations) and neurophysiology. High expertise in analysis of cerebral signals, brain-computer interfaces, evoked potentials, brain connectivity, and inverse cerebral modelling makes CUT, ICL and UPC the optimal leading institutions to enhance the scientific and technological capacity of UM. HybridNeuro aims to foster the development of research excellence at UM and in less-developed eastern Slovenian region through a) career forming of early-stage and senior researchers, b) increasing the attractiveness of UM for visiting researchers, c) improving project proposal and management capacity at UM, d) forming new and strengthening old collaborations between industrial, clinical and research institutions in Slovenia and abroad with UM and twinning partners in Sweden, the UK and Spain, and e) increasing the impact and visibility of neuroscience and neuroengineering in Slovenia.