About half the money, which is to be disbursed over a decade, is expected to come from governments, and the rest from companies, institutes and universities, according to European Union officials. Details of how an initial payment of 54 million euros, almost $73 million, for each project will be allocated should be decided in the coming months, officials said.

A selection committee of scientists and industrialists took two years to whittle a list of more than 20 projects down to two winners. The members of the selection committee have not been identified, but European Union officials said they were carefully vetted to avoid any conflicts of interest.

The Human Brain Project aims to create the most accurate simulation to date of the brain and its functions. The project could help aid diagnoses of diseases, help with the testing of new drugs, and develop supercomputing techniques modeled on the brain.

The project involves scientists from 87 institutions and will be led by Henry Markram, a professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Partners in that project include the Institut Pasteur in France, I.B.M. in the United States and SAP in Germany.

The project on new materials will focus on ultrathin graphene, which conducts electricity better than copper, is up to 300 times stronger than steel and could be used to build better display screens. European officials say graphene could also replace and redefine components in devices like computers and phones by, for example, making them foldable.