FWF funds Cluster of Excellence ’Neuronal Circuits in Health and Disease’ with 21 million euros

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Bild: FWF/Daniel Novotny
Bild: FWF/Daniel Novotny

Scientists from MedUni Vienna together with other research institutions from Austria will carry out a large-scale project in the field of brain research as part of the Cluster of Excellence "Neuronal Circuits in Health and Disease" funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. The funding volume of the FWF amounts to 21 million euros.

Together with MedUni Vienna, headed by Tibor Harkany from the Center for Brain Research, the IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the Medical University of Innsbruck and the University of Vienna are involved in the Cluster of Excellence for Brain Research.

Understanding brain functions and developing therapies for brain diseases

The brain is the most complex and sophisticated organ of the human body. Thus, understanding brain function is not only the greatest scientific challenge for mankind but also a quest to rationalize consciousness, the "human self", maximize performance, and offer templates for all those disciplines that use human brain designs as operational templates. Researchers based in Austria came together to create comprehensive understanding on how distinct types of inhibitory neurons, which are invariable and indispensable cellular nodes of every neuronal network, develop, interact to control circuit operations that underlie behaviors, and become vulnerable in schizophrenia, autism, and epilepsy. Thus, new concepts of personalized pharmacotherapy will be developed to alleviate mental illnesses.

"It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to unite leaders of the Austrian Neuroscience community, including both discovery research and clinical experts, to join a large-scale effort for tangible advances in understanding brain function and develop treatments for brain diseases." explains Tibor Harkany, Director of Research, about the objectives of the Cluster of Excellence.

At the same time, a further consortium was granted funding. The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, the Graz University of Technology, the Vienna University of Technology, the University of Graz and the University of Vienna are researching sustainable material cycles in the "Circular Bioengineering" Cluster of Excellence. The FWF funding volume here amounts to 16 million euros.

The funding volume of the individual clusters is made up of a 60 percent share from the Austrian Science Fund FWF and a 40 percent share from the participating research institutions’ own funds. In total, the two Clusters of Excellence will thus achieve a total investment volume of 62 million euros over the next five years.

These two approvals conclude the first funding round of the federal government’s excellence initiative excellent=austria for the expansion of top-level research at universities and non-university research institutions: There are a total of nine Clusters of Excellence and five Emerging Fields, which are intended to provide a boost to innovation in basic research. The FWF’s total investment volume to date amounts to 186 million euros, and hundreds of researchers are involved in a total of 24 research institutions throughout Austria.

A map with all Clusters of Excellence and Emerging Fields can be found here: excellentaustria.fwf.ac.at