Multidisciplinary and Integrative Research Environment
Research teams at the CNCR stand out by their specific research areas and often state-of-the-art techniques. As a consequence, the existing diversity in disciplines within the CNCR often leads to multidisciplinary collaborations; from genomics to electrophysiology and from cell biology to human studies. An example of such a collaboration is: Van den Oever et al., Nat Neurosci. 2008
The diversity in research areas at the CNCR furthermore ensures strong integrative research: from molecules to brain, and from cells to behaviour. Examples of such integrative studies: von Engelhardt et al., Science 2010 and de Wit et al., Cell 2009.
Young Investigators
The CNCR wants to be on the front line of new research. The CNCR tries to reach this goal by stimulating new views and revolutionary techniques in Neuroscience. In addition, the policy of the CNCR is to invest in young scientists and support them during their development into independent senior investigators. Accordingly, many of the research teams at the CNCR are headed by young investigators and financed via second and third flow of funds.
Scientific Meetings
CNCR Seminar Series
The most prestigious platform of CNCR lectures is the Seminar Series which is organized as an interdepartmental platform stimulating interdisciplinary discussions. It is organized by the departments of MCN, FG and INP at the VU University but researchers of other local institutes (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, VU Medical Center) regularly join these series. The program offers lectures from national and international scientists that are amongst the top-ranked scientists in their field of expertise. These occasions provide a perfect opportunity to initiate international collaborations or explore potential postdoctoral positions for our junior researchers. The CNCR Seminar series is also the platform where our PhD-students have the opportunity to present their thesis before defending the thesis to the expert committee.
Another interdepartmental discussion platform are the theme-meetings, in which researchers working on similar research subjects or approaches meet to discus data and perform trouble shooting and method development.
Inspiring Learning Environment
Bachelor/Master program
The Bachelor/Master program of our institute is designed to educate talented and ambitious students to become valuable members of the scientific community. This is best reflected in the aim of the VU University to create a “community of learners” in which students are guided during their studies in an almost individual basis.
The best example of this high-quality program is the honours master program, which is a joint effort between the CNCR, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (Amsterdam) and the Erasmus Department of Neuroscience (Rotterdam). The aim of this program is to select master students with PhD potential and to provide these with an excellent research environment during the second year of master training. This selection of excellent students will be able to follow various courses and workshops at the different institutes of their choice with individual guidance and training possibilities. To assist these excellent students in focussing on their studies the honours program offers a stipend to support the scientific goals of these students. The success of the honours program is best reflected by the fact that many of the honours students continue their scientific career after the honours masters by starting a PhD-project.
Graduate School
PhD-students of the CNCR will be part of The Graduate School Neurosciences Amsterdam Rotterdam. The ONWAR offers a training program for Ph.D.-candidates performing their Ph.D. research in the field of neuroscience at the Neuroscience Campus Amsterdam (VU University Amsterdam and VU University medical center), the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (KNAW) or the Department of Neuroscience, ErasmusMC Rotterdam. The aim of the training program is to provide graduate students with an adequate overview of the neurosciences allowing them be involved in multidisciplinary brain research and increasing their national and international career opportunities.
The ONWAR also organizes annual meetings that take place at which Ph.D.-candidates from all participating institutes meet to present and discuss the progress of their research. In addition, to inform students of highlights in the neurosciences the graduate school organizes an annual series of “Swammerdam Lectures” which have been incorporated as an integral component of the training program. These lectures are generally given approximately six times a year by renowned neuroscientists.
Pizza Meetings
The Pizza Meetings are organized by and for PhD-students and are known for the presence of Pizza’s ad libitum. The Pizza Meetings are known for their friendly atmosphere which encourages PhD-students to step forward and engage in scientific discussions.
MiniSymposia
The CNCR recently initiated the organization of minisymposia, that are linked to the thesis-defences of graduating PhD-students. The minisymposia enable visiting members of the PhD-committee to present the latest developments of their own research and thereby create a solid scientific foundation for the topic and defence of the thesis.
