The University of Coimbra will receive 5 million euros to boost research in cognitive neuroscience and biomedical sciences

The funding will allow, over five years, to boost this area of research at the UC. The project is funded under the ERA Chair Actions, a funding mechanism of the European Commission that supports universities and research centres so they can attract and retain qualified human resources and, simultaneously, enhance research excellence in their fields of expertise.
Jorge Almeida will coordinate the ERA Chair "CogBooster", whose main goal is to "create and sustain an extremely strong research group in the area of Cognitive Neuroscience, which should also support the applied research currently carried out at FPCE-UC, framing the innovation developed there in a strong fundamental science. Cognitive Neuroscience is an area of basic science (i.e. not applied) that studies how cognitive, social and emotional processes are implemented in the brain," explains the UC professor and researcher.
"Since the last decade of the last century, this is one of the most central areas in the best Psychology Departments/Faculties in Europe and worldwide. Specifically, at least 40% of the people in these departments are dedicated to research and teaching in the area of Cognitive Neuroscience. The percentage of teachers and research community dedicated to this disciplinary area in Psychology Faculties in Portugal is, on average, 12%, in a context where more than 80% of teachers are dedicated to applied areas of Psychology, namely in the mental health area, which does not happen in Psychology Departments or Faculties that are a world reference", contextualizes Jorge Almeida. In this context, the ERA Chair "CogBooster" aims to "have a transformative effect on the reinforcement of scientific research in Cognitive Neuroscience in Portugal, both at the academic and at the societal level, bringing it closer to the examples of the best European and world psychology departments", he adds.
This project will have as leader (the "ERA Chair Holder") Alfonso Caramazza, professor at Harvard University, in the United States of America, "one of the most respected and cited researchers in the field of Psychology and Cognitive Science, who has published over 450 articles and book chapters, and has been awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, who has been contributing, in a central way, to the development of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, namely in the psycholinguistic areas, semantic memory, mental representations and their organisation in the brain, and in the study of patients with neuronal lesions", highlights Jorge Almeida. The "ERA Chair Holder" will lead the "CogBooster" project team and coordinate research and dissemination efforts, to strengthen the area of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Coimbra.
The research group will include current teachers and researchers from the FPCE-UC, namely Maria Paula Paixão, Leonor Pais and Óscar Gonçalves, as well as Jorge Almeida. In the future, it will allow the recruitment of a larger research and teaching team.

Source: Notícias UC