Annual Report 2019 BCN - RESEARCH SCHOOL of BEHAVIOURAL and COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCES 2 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019
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Annual Report 2019 BCN - RESEARCH SCHOOL OF BEHAVIOURAL AND COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCES 2 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 In this issue BCN Annual Report 2019 3 BCN’s participating faculties 4 BCN’s science & education 5 Influx of Master students 6 Influx of PhD students 7 Theses defenses 8 Cheeky propositions 9 Prize cabinet 10 BCN Awards 12 Grants & funding 13 BCN’s media exposure 16 Other activities & events 21 BCN Newsletter 23 Colophon 23 NBTT conference 24 Photo by Sander Martens 3 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 BCN Annual Report 2019 Dear colleagues, Hereby we would like to present you the annual report from the interdisciplinary Research School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences (BCN). We are happy to see that our 33rd year (!) has been productive in many ways; in terms of numbers of master students and PhD candidates and their evaluations of BCN education and tutoring, in terms of personal and collaborative research grants that were obtained by faculty, in terms of scientific meetings and retreats, and in terms of outreach and valorisation of neuroscience. This report provides highlights of all of these aspects. Clearly, everything has changed due to the Covid-19 measures that were recently implemented. Many of you will be working from home, and you may be juggling with different work- and familial responsibilities. Some of you may be worried about yourselves or family members, some may have fallen ill themselves, and other colleagues may be working overtime in clinical duties. Wherever you are; we hope you will enjoy reading this annual report as a source of distraction and inspiration. And if circumstances permit, we hope you will continue to invest your much appreciated effort and enthusiasm for BCN and the field of Neuroscience. Please note that we are organising a major BCN conference titled ‘Nothing but the Truth’. It was scheduled for October 2020, embedded with the activities of the Groningen Climate Week. By now, it is clear that we will have to reschedule it. Currently we plan to postpone it for a year, aiming for October 2021. This is a truly multidisciplinary endeavour focusing on the core of what we do as scientists, and how science may affect the society we live in. The current situation offers an unexpected illustration of its relevance. We will definitely keep you updated on this. For now, we wish you all strength and good health in the period that lies ahead of us. On behalf of the BCN board, Robert Schoevers Photo by Michiel Hooiveld 4 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 BCN’s participating faculties Who’s in BCN? There are five faculties from the the 1. The Research Institute Brain and Cognition from the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMW) / University of Groningen and one faculty from the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). University of Twente that participate in the Research School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience 2. The Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES): Neurobiology and (BCN). From these faculties a selection of researchers Behavioural Biology and the Johann Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics and Computer affiliated with different research institutes (see below) Science (JBI) from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE). are active within BCN. 3. The Heymans Institute (HI) from the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences (GMW). 4. The Groningen Research Institute of Philosophy (GRIPh) from the Faculty of Philosophy (FW). 5. The Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG) from the Faculty of Arts (LET). 6. The Technical Medical Centre (TechMed Centre) from the University of Twente. > MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE https://www.umcg.nl/EN/Research/InstitutesProgrammes/Research-Institute-Brain-and-Cognition/Programmes/ Paginas/default.aspx 5 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 BCN’s science & education One of the core goals of BCN is to the #1 Neuroscience programme in the stepped over the borders of disciplines. stimulate multidisciplinary research Netherlands. The third aspect is a focus on research. within the field of neuroscience. Within BCN-students perform two large research BCN we do everything we can to bring our We believe the ongoing success of BCN projects during their master, and other researchers into contact with each other is dependent on three unique aspects courses in BCN are also strongly research- in order to foster creative collaborations of this programme. First, we try to bring oriented. After graduation, around 75% of across faculties and disciplines. The results small-scale education, by admitting a the students continue with a PhD project. are shown in the projects, papers, grants, maximum number of 15 students in each Just to name a few: Recent graduates that and new studies that are produced each of the three tracks (Human and Animal now work in BCN Research Groups include year and highlighted in this annual report. Behavioural Neurosciences (B-track), Nena Lejko, Theresa Marschall and Minke Photo by Mark Winkel As for our education, we are more Cognitive Neurosciences (C-track) and de Boer (at UMCG), Kevin Ike and Romy than happy with the fact that BCN’s Clinical and Molecular Neurosciences Smit (at GELIFES) or Robbert van der Mijn starting collaborations or sharing job master programme is regarded as the (N-track). A second important factor is (at Psychology). Many others work at other opportunities. For this, we started a BCN very best neuroscience programme in the the interdisciplinarity of the programme. universities in The Netherlands, as well as LinkedIn Group, which already provides Netherlands. The BCN Research Master’s Students come from a broad range abroad. a nice impression of current careers of programme has been awarded with of disciplines, not only Biology, Life our former students. In addition, the BCN the ‘Top Degree Programme’ predicate Sciences, and Psychology but also This unique combination of features Student Council will continue to organize several times already, and this was again Movement Sciences, Computer Science, helps BCN-lecturers to optimally prepare the BCN Alumni Event every year. the case in 2019. Eva Teuling, BCN’s and Artificial Intelligence. Their lecturers our students for their future (research) programme coordinator reports: come from no less than five faculties careers. Alumni mention that the small We hope you, as a BCN Researcher will For the 6th year in a row, the Behavourial (Science and Engineering, Medical groups and the experience the students continue to supervise our students, and Cognitive Neurosciences Sciences, Behavioural and Social Sciences, get during the two master projects really thus maintaining the high quality of our Research Master programme, which is Philosophy and Arts). We train students helped them get a head start with their programme. coordinated by the Faculty of Science to think outside ‘their’ field and come up PhD-projects. Since recent years, we and Engineering, has been awarded with interdisciplinary research questions. have been monitoring our alumni more On behalf of the BCN Staff, as a Top Programme in the Keuzegids Moreover, we have started giving an closely, and have created a community Eva Teuling Masters (see https://www.keuzegids.org/ ‘interdisciplinarity prize’ since last year, for of (former) BCN-students that, also later Programme Coordinator BCN ol/gidsen/ma19/topopleidingen), being the student who has best shown to have in their careers, can help each other by ([email protected]) 6 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Influx of Master students In 2019, 37 students enrolled in the BCN Research Master’s The proportion of students with a Dutch BSc (51%) is almost the degree programme, of which 25 (67%) were women. same of the proportion of students with a non-Dutch BSc (49%). Interestingly though, the proportion of students with a Dutch nationality (32%) is lower than the proportion of students with a different nationality (68%). 37 Students 49% Foreign students 67% 33% Female Male 51% Dutch students 7 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Influx of PhD students In 2019, 50 PhD students enrolled in the BCN PhD training This is quite a reduction from last year (which saw 90 The majority of PhD students comes from the programme, of which 66% were women. new PhD students). A plausible reason for this is that Netherlands 58%), followed by Western Europe (18%), the bursary student system was stopped. Four percent Asia (16%), United States (2%) and Latin America (6%). of the PhD students are from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE), 64% from the Faculty of Medical Science/University Medical Center Groningen (FMW/UMCG), 22% from the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences (GMW) and 10% from the Faculty 2% of Arts (LET). United States 50 Students 4% 6% 18% 10% FSE Latin America Western LET 58% Europe Dutch students 66% 34% Female Male 22% GMW 64% FMW/UMCG 16% Asia 8 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Theses defenses In 2019, 44 PhD BCN students defended 5% their dissertations. Five percent of the LET 5% PhD students were from the Faculty of FSE Science and Engineering (FSE), 73% from 11% the Faculty of Medical Science/University GMW Medical Center Groningen (FMW/UMCG), 11% from the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences (GMW) and 5% from the Faculty of Arts (LET). > A MORE DETAILED OVERVIEW IS AVAILABLE HERE https://www.rug.nl/research/behavioural-cognitive- neurosciences/organisation/dissertations2019 73% FMW/UMCG Photo by Sander Martens 9 BCN ANNUAL REPORT 2019 Cheeky propositions “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” – Rumi