The BRAIN Initiative started at the instigation of the Kavli Foundation.

From : How the Brain Is Computing the Mind, A Conversation With Ed Boyden [2.12.16] - Edge.org https://www.edge.org/conversation/ed_boyden-how-the-brain-is-computing-the-mind

ED BOYDEN is a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute. He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group. ..

..It was about a three-year period until this started to get mainstream acceptance, and then, there was another three-year period where people said, wow, how do we get more technology, and that led to initiatives like the Obama BRAIN Initiative, which is an attempt to get widespread technology development throughout neuroscience.

The BRAIN Initiative started at the instigation of the Kavli Foundation. They were hosting a series of brainstorms about what nanoscientists and neuroscientists could do together, and Paul Alivisatos and George Church and Rafael Yuste and many people at that border were at these early sessions. And in late 2012, I was invited to one of these sessions where many inventors were invited and we started talking about maybe brain activity mapping is great and all, but the technologies might be much more broad than that; you might need more than just maps.

...IARPA is involved. They are trying to do a hard push for short-term mammalian brain circuit mapping based upon existing technology, and sort of a small part of that more on the technology development side. Most of the money is on the application side. But we have some new tools that we think can be very, very helpful.

...I can tell you about a collaboration that we have with George Church. George’s group for about fifteen years now has been trying to work on a technology called in situ sequencing, and what that means is can you sequence the genetic code and also the expressed genes, the recipes of cells, right there inside the cells?

...My co-inventor, Karl Deisseroth, and I both won Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences for our work together on optogenetics, this technology where we put molecules that are light sensitive into neurons and then we can make them activatable or silence-able with pulses of light.

Kavli Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kavli_Foundation_(United_States)

The Kavli Foundation was established in December 2000 by its founder and benefactor, Fred Kavli, a Norwegian business leader and philanthropist whose foundation is currently actively involved in establishing research institutes at universities throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Asia.

To date, the Kavli Foundation has made grants to establish Kavli Institutes on the campuses of 16 major universities. In addition to the Kavli Institutes, six Kavli professorships have been established: two at University of California, Santa Barbara, one each at University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Irvine, Columbia University, Cornell University, and California Institute of Technology.

Fred Kavli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Kavli

Fred Kavli (August 20, 1927 – November 21, 2013) was a Norwegian and naturalized American business leader, inventor, and philanthropist. He was born on a small farm in Eresfjord, Norway. He founded the Kavlico Corporation, located in Moorpark, California. Under his leadership, the company became one of the world's largest suppliers of sensors for aeronautic, automotive, and industrial applications supplying General Electric and the Ford Motor Company.

In 2000 he established The Kavli Foundation to "advance science for the benefit of humanity and to promote public understanding and support for scientists and their work".[2] The Foundation's mission is implemented through an international program of research institutes, professorships, and symposia in the scientific fields of astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience, and theoretical physics. The foundation awards the Kavli Prize in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.

..In 2000, he sold Kavlico for $345 million to C-Mac Industries Inc. Kavlico is today owned by the French company Schneider Electric.

Schneider Electric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Electric

Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational corporation headquartered in Rueil-Malmaison, France. It is also based at the World Trade Center of Grenoble.

..The roots of this company are in the iron, steel and armaments factories of Schneider-Creusot[11] and other industrial concerns.[

..Schneider Electric refocused in 2010 to include software, critical power and smart grid applications through strategic acquisitions. In 2015, the company launched a brand strategy called “Life Is On” which aims to showcase the business and societal value of sustainability and efficiency.[13][14]

The emergence of the digital economy created opportunities for IoT-enabled platforms, which Schneider Electric identified as a growth opportunity.[15] In 2016, the company launched EcoStruxure, its IoT-enabled architecture.

Schneider-Creusot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider-Creusot

Schneider-Creusot, or Schneider et Cie, was a historic French iron and steel-mill which became a major arms manufacturer. After World War II, it eventually evolved into Schneider Electric.

IARPA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Advanced_Research_Projects_Activity

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) is an organization within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence responsible for leading research to overcome difficult challenges relevant to the United States Intelligence Community.[2] IARPA characterizes its mission as follows: "To envision and lead high-risk, high-payoff research that delivers innovative technology for future overwhelming intelligence advantage."

IARPA funds academic and industry research across a broad range of technical areas, including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, neuroscience, linguistics, political science, and cognitive psychology. Most IARPA research is unclassified and openly published. IARPA transfers successful research results and technologies to other government agencies. Notable IARPA investments include quantum computing,[3] superconducting computing, machine learning, and forecasting tournaments.

George Church + IARPA + Edge https://www.edge.org/memberbio/george_church

He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, ELSI, environmental and biosecurity policies. He is director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Science.

Optogenetics is of interest because of their brain experiments which can be seen to potentially be leading to modern forms of mind control. And as Epstein is involved... More to come...