ZUARINAGAR : Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Biological Sciences of BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus has received a multi-institutional Erasmus+ International grant for the proposal titled “Integrated Track in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (iBRAIN)” under the Capacity Building in Higher Education 2019 scheme.
The total grant amount sanctioned is EUR 967,160 (762 lakhs INR) and grant amount sanctioned to BITS Pilani Goa is EUR 138,350 (109 lakhs INR). Prof Veeky Baths, Associate Professor at the Dept of Biological Sciences and Principal Investigator at the Cognitive Neuroscience Lab is one of the PIs. Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport.
The primary purpose of this project is modernisation of the curriculum in cognitive studies by developing new and innovative courses and methodologies in the partner countries. The project also aims to update existing courses in cognitive neurosciences, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology and related areas.
This consortium of international universities and institutes was proposed through a collective proposal between several researchers. The project was conceptualised by prof Boris Gutkin (Ecole Normal Superior, France) in collaboration with prof Veeky Baths (BITS Pilani, Goa Campus), prof Ramesh Mishra (University of Hyderabad), prof Yury Shtyrov (Aarhus University, Denmark), prof Andriy Myachykov (Northumbria University, UK), prof Vasily Klucharev (National Research University, Higher School of Economics, Russia) and prof Raul Gainetdinov (Saint Petersburg State University, Russia). This project aims to develop an educational track from master level to doctoral level of education in Cognitive Sciences, which will combine Psychology, Neurobiology, Mathematics and Computer Sciences.
The project duration is up to 3 years, starting in January 2020. The grant will promote the internationalisation of training/ teaching in cognitive sciences among the consortium partners and allow student mobility. Several workshops and conferences will be organised to implement activities planned within the project. The first meeting of all the PI’s from the partner countries will be held in Paris in 2020. Prof Veeky Baths and his team at Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, BITS Goa is actively pursuing research in Cognitive Sciences. It houses a research-grade EEG recording system from EGI (Phillips) with the doctoral students currently working in the domains of EEG based Home and Wheelchair Automation, the study of Neurodegeneration due to Alzheimer’s disease, Psycholinguistics and Neuromarketing.