Archive

Evaluation award to the Neuroscience Center

The Neuroscience Center will receive an award of 360 000 € for its cutting edge level scientific quality.

The evaluation of research and doctoral training was based on information supplied by researchers, which dealt with the focus, quality, and societal impact of research and doctoral training, funding, and academic cooperation. Participation in the assessment was not on a department-basis, but rather as research communities formed across disciplines. A total of 136 communities joined in, and each of them received tailored feedback on their respective situation.

Report of the international evaluation of research and doctoral training at the University of Helsinki 2005–2010 was published 7th May.

The Neuroscience Center was awarded in Category 1 (Cutting edge) with 360 000 € for the top level scientific quality that is outstanding by international standards, with respect to scientific output and input.

The science of the Center was described highly original and innovative. Central to the interdisciplinary concept the Center has generated are the mechanisms of synaptic interactions and plasticity, around which the Center has skillfully placed a number of dedicated approaches focusing on inhibitory neurotransmission and the role of chloride homeostasis, pathogenesis of epilepsies, synaptic maturation, neurotrophic factors, structural plasticity, adhesion and matrix molecules in neuronal development and immune regulation, histaminergic transmitters in development and disease and computational analyses of synapticnetwork activity. The approaches are convincingly complementary, both in scientific and technical terms.

The steering group emphasized that the scientific findings of the Center have significantly contributed to setting the pace of the research field, and in parts have led to remarkable clinical translations.

Publication of the evaluation report (video) »»