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Brain Dynamics is the name of a new Graduate School being set up at Leipzig University as part of the research profile area of the same name. The target agreement with the Rectorate was signed at the end of March. The aim is to establish a strong network for the structured training of doctoral researchers in the field of neuroscience, with links to the Research Academy Leipzig.

The Brain Dynamics Graduate School will be supported by the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine. Doctoral researchers at other faculties whose work overlaps with neuroscience can also participate together with their supervisors. The spokespersons are Professor Marc Schönwiesner (Faculty of Life Sciences) and Professor Jens Eilers (Faculty of Medicine). The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology are also involved in the Graduate School.

“The Graduate School will pool the expertise of a large group of distinguished neuroscientists working at universities and non-university research institutions,” said Marc Schönwiesner. This expertise will flow into developing the skills of internationally competitive doctoral researchers and at the same time will bring Leipzig’s neuroscientists closer together.

With its scientific orientation, the Brain Dynamics Graduate School will conduct basic, applied and clinical research in neuroscience from the subcellular to the systemic and clinical level. In areas such as neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, computational neuroscience, and cognitive science, research will cover species from fruit flies to humans with the goal of understanding information processing in the brain and improving the treatment of brain-related disorders.

“The doctoral students in our Graduate Schools pursue their degrees under the best conditions in terms of resources, supervision, skills development and international networking,” said Professor Erich Schröger, Vice-Rector for Research and Early Career Academics.