(a) The Regents of the University of California are requested to establish the Cal-BRAIN program to leverage California’s vast research assets and the federal BRAIN Initiative’s funding opportunities to accelerate the development of brain mapping techniques, including the development of new technologies, which will create new, high-paying jobs in California while advancing patient care and improving lives, in order to achieve the following goals:

(1) Maintain California’s leadership role in neuroscience innovation.

(2) Develop a dynamic map of the human brain that provides researchers, physicians, and engineers with the knowledge necessary to develop new treatments and technologies that will improve lives and reduce the costs of providing health care.

(3) Grow California’s economy through the expansion of California’s high technology and biotechnology sectors.

(4) Train the next generation of scientists for the neuroscience and engineering jobs of the future.

(b) The University of California is requested to utilize California’s unique collaborative research environment by convening stakeholders from public and private research institutions, national laboratories, biotechnology and high technology companies, and venture capital firms to develop the governing structure for the Cal-BRAIN program.

(c) The governing structure shall be designed to do all of the following:

(1) Adopt a research plan that identifies milestones for achieving the goals of the Cal-BRAIN program.

(2) Establish competitive, merit-based opportunities for interested public and private California research institutions and national laboratories to apply for Cal-BRAIN program funding.

(3) Maintain the flexibility to adjust the Cal-BRAIN program’s priorities and focus based upon knowledge gained from scientific discoveries.

(4) Establish a technology transfer program to identify and accelerate the commercial application of both early and late-stage discoveries and technologies from the Cal-BRAIN program into the marketplace and to promote new and expanded technology sectors in the state.

(5) Solicit contributions to the Cal-BRAIN program with a goal of achieving a nonstate funding match that meets or exceeds the financial investment by the state.

(Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 34, Sec. 32. (SB 860) Effective June 20, 2014.)