Bonn, September 3 – Investigating how the activity of nerve cells translate to complex mental processing. B05 Co-PI Lukas Kunz (Department of Epileptology at the University Hospital Bonn, UKB) will examine spatial perception of human brain in the NEUROSPACE project, the neuroscientist with an ERC Starting Grant of approximately 1.5 million euros over five years.

Read the full press release at the Universität Bonn (UKB) UKB Newsroom announcement 3. September 2026.

ERC Press, and list of all domains. The ERC Starting Grant provides support for scientists starting their scientific careers (from 2 to 7 years following PhD).

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Dear all,

The Güntürkün lab at Ruhr University Bochum seeks to hire a Postdoctoral Researcher. Applicants from all areas of psychology and neuroscience will be considered – priority given to a person with fMRI experience who is willing to work with pigeons.

The position is available here: https://jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/b82b8ece73a8350779e48715a0e2c52f179385750?ref=homepage
Find out more about our lab here: https://www.bio.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/

We would greatly appreciate it if you could share this announcement within your networks and with potential candidates. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

Many thanks and best regards,
Sandra Linn

Poster

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APPLYING FOR AN ERC GRANT IN THE 2027 COMPETITIONS: WHAT YOU NEED TO
KNOW

The ERC plans to launch the grant competitions under its 2027 Work Programme between July 2026 and June 2027, with the calls for proposals introducing several changes to the eligibility rules for applications.
More here >>

ERC PRESIDENT EXPLAINS STRICTER APPLICATION MEASURES AMID RISING DEMAND
FOR FUNDING

ERC President Maria Leptin explains the reasons for stricter resubmission limits for 2027 calls, that were introduced to manage rising number of applications and reviewer workload. She urges
applicants to carefully assess timing of the submission and maturity of their proposals.
More here >>

GRANT MANAGEMENT VIDEO CLASSES FOR ERC GRANTEES

Are you an ERC grantee or do you manage an ERC grant? Watch six newly released videos designed to help you navigate the rules and manage your grant with ease.
More here >>

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The post Statistical survey of DFG member programs 2025 appeared first on SFB 1315.

Read more here >

“From 2026 onwards, Germany will participate in the open access publishing platform Open Research Europe (ORE). This will give all researchers at German institutions the option of publishing their research results in open access free of charge. Submissions are expected to be possible from autumn 2026. As a country-level member, the DFG enables all researchers working at German institutions to submit contributions in future, regardless of project funding.

Until now, the platform was funded exclusively by the European Commission and was available only to those in receipt of funding under the European Framework Programmes for Research. From 2026 onwards, governance of the platform will be taken over by research and funding organisations and science ministries based in eleven European countries. The platform will also undergo technical modification and its publishing processes will be subject to continuous improvement driven by the research community. Technical implementation will be carried out by CERN, which, together with OPERAS and the participating organisations, will also support communication and outreach activities. The new governance structure is to foster a sustainable and independent culture of publishing aligned with the needs of the research community.

The agreements governing Germany’s participation were signed by the BMFTR, which has tasked the DFG with implementing the initiative – including participation in ORE bodies – for an initial period of five years.” Source

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The Ernst Schering Prize 2025, endowed with 50.000 euros, is awarded to Prof. Dr. Volker Haucke, Director at the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at Freie Universität Berlin. This prestigious science award honors his groundbreaking discoveries on the function of signaling lipids, which control the cellular responses to messengers, hormones, and nutrients, thereby shaping central processes in cell communication.

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Die Schering Stiftung zeichnet Volker Haucke mit dem Ernst Schering Preis 2025 aus. Volker Haucke erhält den Ernst Schering Preis 2025 für seine bahnbrechenden Entdeckungen über die Funktion von Signallipiden, welche die zelluläre Antwort auf interne oder externe Signale wie Botenstoffe, Hormone oder Nährstoffe steuern. Da Fehlfunktionen der Lipidsignalübertragung mit zahlreichen menschlichen Krankheiten in Verbindung stehen, hat seine Forschung weitreichende biomedizinische Auswirkungen mit größter klinischer Bedeutung, von Schlaganfall über Neurodegeneration bis hin zu Krebs.

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Einstein Foundation approves funding of 9.6 million euros, to tackel mental health (Einstein Center for Youth Mental Health), as well as three joint research projects, a postdoctoral grant and two visiting fellowships

The role of the midbrain in orientation and decision-making

Matthew Larkum and Ariel Gilad, Assistant Professor of Medical Neurobiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), will conduct joint research into the neural mechanisms of the brain that control navigation and goal-directed behavior in everyday life. One of the brain’s central tasks is to enable living beings to orient themselves flexibly in their environment. Navigation means making decisions about when, how, where, or whether to move—and requires an idea of one’s own position in the environment. Although it is known that different areas of the brain work together in this process, the role of a specific area in the midbrain—the superior colliculus—has been little studied to date.

The Larkum and Gilad team is now investigating the hypothesis that it is precisely this feedback that is crucial for selecting and predicting movements. The project builds on the concept of circular feedback loops in the brain developed in Berlin, which is based on work by Livia de Hoz (Charité).

Source: Einstein Foundation Press Release (in German).
https://www.einsteinfoundation.de/en/media/press-releases/2025/28072025-08/25

#neuroscience #brainresearch #neurobiology #decisionmaking #navigation #midbrain #HebrewUniversity #HumboldtUniversity

See EINSTEIN FOUNDATION – press release

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A very big thanks to all current and past SFB1315 members and associates for submitting your surveys!

As in  previous years, the purpose of the survey is to determine how many people are financed by funds from the Excellence Strategy − how many PhDs are completed in RTGs and CRCs  − which new professorships will be established in clusters of excellence – and more.  Two sources of information help answer these questions: the DFG uses data available while processing proposals and in its annual survey of funded consortia.

Forms, guidelines and much more on the DFG portal.

The next annual survey for Collaborative Research Centres, Research Training Groups, Clusters of Excellence and Research Impulses will be will start on September 2025.

Area of work for new members: DFG Classification of Scientific Disciplines, Research Areas, Review Boards and Subject Areas

Here are results of the 2024 survey >>

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The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize celebrates its anniversary year by honoring four female and six male scientists. Each recipient will receive €2.5 million. The awards ceremony will take place on March 19 in Berlin.

Professor Dr. Volker Haucke from the Leibniz Research Institute for Molecular Pharmacology in Berlin has been awarded the prestigious Leibniz Prize for his groundbreaking research on the molecular mechanisms of lipid signaling and synaptic signal transmission in the nervous system.

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize has been awarded annually by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since 1986. Each year, up to ten prizes, each worth €2.5 million, can be granted. To date, a total of 428 prizes have been awarded, distributed across various fields: 136 in natural sciences, 126 in life sciences, 101 in humanities and social sciences, and 65 in engineering. Since the prize and its monetary award can be shared in exceptional cases, the total number of recipients exceeds the number of prizes. So far, 455 individuals have been honored, including 377 male and 78 female scientists. (source DFG)

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