Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "EBRAINS 2.0: A Research Infrastructure to Advance Neuroscience and Brain Health" "Daniele Marinazzo" "Department of Data-analysis" "EBRAINS is a collaborative European Research Infrastructure designed to advance and accelerate progress in neuroscience and brain health. This innovative infrastructure, a legacy of the Human Brain Project (HBP), is an ecosystem where researchers, clinicians and experts from various disciplines converge to explore and analyze brain complexity – from molecular and cellular levels to the functioning of the entire organ. Therefore, the project aims to create a new standard for brain atlases from the micro- to the macroscale, link foundational multi-level data and connectomes in the healthy and pathological brain with atlases and models, create digital twins through modelling and simulation as well as unique, excellent, and preferred services for FAIR neuroscience data. The overarching goal of EBRAINS 2.0 is to foster a deeper understanding of brain structure and function with dedicated and mature software tools, to facilitate the development of more effective treatments, new drugs, diagnostics and preventive measures for neuropsychiatric disorders. We expect that EBRAINS 2.0 catalyzes progress in the field of large-scale models running on HPC towards Exascale and leads to innovative solutions for neuro-inspired computing, and cognitive technologies such as neurorobotics and AI. Sophisticated digital modeling and data analytics capabilities will benefit communities beyond neuroscience, such as biomedicine. We will advance EBRAINS technology, platform services and the base infrastructure roadmap, educate and train a new community of users and developers from academia, industry and SMEs, and ensure knowledge transfer. EBRAINS 2.0 will become the neuroscience hub in the European infrastructure landscape, through building strong links with the European data spaces, EOSC and EuroHPC JU, centers of excellences and other initiatives. Globally, EBRAINS 2.0 will make a strong contribution to the new era of digital neuroscience and foster European leadership in this field." "EBRAINS 2.0: A Research Infrastructure to Advance Neuroscience and Brain Health" "Wim Vanduffel" "Laboratory for Neuro- and Psychophysiology" "EBRAINS is a collaborative European Research Infrastructure designed to advance and accelerate progress in neuroscience and brain health. This innovative infrastructure, a legacy of the Human Brain Project (HBP), is an ecosystem where researchers, clinicians and experts from various disciplines converge to explore and analyze brain complexity – from molecular and cellular levels to the functioning of the entire organ. Therefore, the project aims to create a new standard for brain atlases from the micro- to the macro-scale, link foundational multi-level data and connectomes in the healthy and pathological brain with atlases and models, create digital twins through modelling and simulation as well as unique, excellent, and preferred services for FAIR neuroscience data. The overarching goal of EBRAINS 2.0 is to foster a deeper understanding of brain structure and function with dedicated and mature software tools, to facilitate the development of more effective treatments, new drugs, diagnostics and preventive measures for neuro-psychiatric disorders. We expect that EBRAINS 2.0 catalyzes progress in the field of large-scale models running on HPC towards Exascale and leads to innovative solutions for neuro-inspired computing, and cognitive technologies such as neurorobotics and AI. Sophisticated digital modeling and data analytics capabilities will benefit communities beyond neuroscience, such as biomedicine. We will advance EBRAINS technology, platform services and the base infrastructure roadmap, educate and train a new community of users and developers from academia, industry and SMEs, and ensure knowledge transfer. EBRAINS 2.0 will become the neuroscience hub in the European infrastructure landscape, through building strong links with the European data spaces, EOSC and EuroHPC JU, centers of excellences and other initiatives. Globally, EBRAINS 2.0 will make a strong contribution to the new era of digital neuroscience and foster European leadership in this field." "The Disobedient Brain: The social neuroscience of non-compliance to immoral orders" "Emilie Caspar" "Department of Experimental psychology" "The core goal of this project is to unravel the mechanisms of disobedience. To understand the factors that prevent an individual from complying with immoral orders, research should focus on two critical axes: (1) which social and situational factors support disobedience and (2) which individual traits and neuro-cognitive processes support disobedience. While the first axe has been extensively addressed in past literature, the second axe has scarcely been approached. DISOBEY is uniquely focused on developing a social neuroscience approach to understanding the mechanisms through which resistance to immoral orders may develop in a given situation. Two main neuro-cognitive processes will be considered: the sense of agency that one experiences when performing a voluntary action and the empathic response towards others’ pain. The main hypothesis is that individuals who retain a high sense of agency and empathy for pain under coercion are more likely to resist immoral orders despite potential social costs. To validate this hypothesis, MRI and neuromodulation techniques will be used. The project will include WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic) adults, as well as very unique and rare non-WEIRD populations, such as military, genocide perpetrators, survivors and their offspring in Rwanda, and ‘Righteous’ individuals who rescued lives from extermination during genocides. Including these populations will also allow to validate my hypothesis beyond WEIRD societies, with individuals who actually experienced the disastrous consequences of obedience during real-life events. With this project I aim to pioneer a new area of research that will have deep societal implications. In the future, I intend to develop specific education programs in the future, with the NGOs I am currently working with, for both military members and civilians in vulnerable societies that seek to prevent illegitimate violence on the ground of compliance to authority." "Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Network for COVID-19" "Chris Baeken" "Department of Head and Skin, Maastricht University, University of Cyprus" "The Brain Research and Integrative Neuroscience Network for COVID-19 (BRAINN) will advance the research and innovation capacity of the University of Cyprus (UCY) as indicated in the ‘Widening Participation & Strengthening the ERA’ Work Programme, by twinning with three advanced partners in brain research, Maastricht University (UM), King’s College London (KCL), and Ghent University (UGent). Through networking activities, training and coordinated actions, BRAINN will develop an innovative applied neuroscience approach to characterise the effects of COVID-19 on brain health and to elevate the standards of assessment, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients with mental health and cognitive problems due to COVID-19. The UM, KCL and UGent teams have complementary world-renowned expertise in neuroimaging, non-invasive neurostimulation and digitalised assessment methods, extensive research management experience and active interest in post-COVID research. Engaging these teams as partners will provide the required mentoring and training towards a focused and systematic approach to neuroscience research in a mutually beneficial manner to raise the research profile of UCY, as well as strengthen the research management and administrative skills of UCY staff. BRAINN will benefit all partners, as the standardisation of assessment and treatment protocols will expedite data collection and will safeguard the sustainability and future expansion of the network. Through interdisciplinary research and development of novel methods and technologies, BRAINN will contribute to personalised treatments, bringing both UCY and Cyprus to the scientific forefront. Additionally, BRAINN will address the brain drain challenge that has increased in Cyprus over the recent years and contribute to the reduction in the burden created by COVID-19. The knowledge and methodologies produced will extend beyond BRAINN, since they will be applicable to other conditions affecting brain health, even when COVID-19 is eradicated." "Seeing things you don't see: Unifying the philosophy, psychology and neuroscience of multimodal mental imagery (STYDS)." "Bence Nanay" "Centre for Philosophical Psychology" "The aim of this research project is to bring together empirical findings about multimodal perception and empirical findings about (visual, auditory, tactile) mental imagery and argue that on occasions like the one described in the last paragraph, we have multimodal mental imagery: perceptual processing in one sense modality (here: vision) that is triggered by sensory stimulation in another sense modality (here: audition)." "How anxiety transforms human cognition: an Affective Neuroscience perspective" "Gilles Pourtois" "Department of Experimental clinical and health psychology" "Anxiety, a state of apprehension or fear, may provoke cognitive or behavioural disorders and eventually lead to serious medical illnesses. The high prevalence of anxiety disorders in our society sharply contrasts with the lack of clear factual knowledge about the corresponding brain mechanisms at the origin of this profound change in the appraisal of the environment. Little is known about how the psychopathological state of anxiety ultimately turns to a medical condition. The core of this proposal is to gain new insight in the neural underpinnings of anxiety and disorders related to anxiety using modern human brain-imaging such as scalp electro-encephalogram(EEG) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging(fMRI). I propose to enlighten how anxiety transforms and shapes human cognition and what the neural correlates and time-course of this modulatory effect are. The primary innocation of this project is the systematic use scalp EEG and fMRI in human participants to better understand the neural mechanisms by which anxiety profoundly influences specific cognitive functions, in particular selective attention and decision-making. The goal of this proposal is to precisely determine the exact timing (using scalp EEG), location, size and extent (using fMRI) of anxiety-related modulations on selective attention and decision-making in the human brain."