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Funded Grants

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BCi-Move: Empowering severely disabled children to achieve power mobility with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)

Project Overview

Thousands of Canadian children living with severe physical disability are intellectually capable but unable to move independently. They are trapped inside their bodies, deprived of their fundamental human rights to interact and participate. An emerging technology, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), are a potential solution. BCIs allow individuals to interact with their environment using only their brainwaves. Growing evidence from our unique program, BCI4Kids, has shown that children with severe disabilities can successfully use BCIs. Children and families in the BCI4Kids program have now identified exploring movement with BCI as a top priority. In a pilot study we have already seen 6 children use BCI to activate a wheelchair, gaining an enormous sense of accomplishment. The current study, BCi-Move, will determine if BCI can be used to achieve personal mobility goals through a customized 3-month training program. Success will be measured by individualized goal achievement, skill progression, and quality of life. BCi-Move will immediately allow disabled children to realize new levels of independence and freedom. As the only child-and family-centered pediatric BCI program in the world, we are ideally positioned to work with our national network of partners and dedicated families to broadly impact the lives of children with severe disabilities.

Principal Investigator

Adam Kirton , Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute

Partners and Donors

Kids Brain Health Network

Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation

Project Ongoing

BCi-Move: Empowering severely disabled children to achieve power mobility with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)

  • Program Type

    Team grants

  • Area of research

    Neurodevelopment

  • Competition

    KBHN Strategic Investment Fund

  • Province

    Alberta

  • Start Date

    2022

  • Total Grant Amount

    $663,000

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $331,500

Contact Us

1200 McGill College Avenue
Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G7

+1 (514) 989-2989 info@braincanada.ca

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Territorial acknowledgement

The offices of Brain Canada Foundation are located on the traditional, ancestral territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Peoples, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We honour and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation. In our work, we focus our efforts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly those that pertain to improving health for Indigenous Peoples and that focus on advancing our own learning on Indigenous issues.

© 2023 Brain Canada Foundation

Registration number: 89105 2094 RR0001

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