University leads €4m international research project

Plymouth University’s Cognition Institute is taking the lead in a four million euro project to explore how creative thinking underpins cognitive processes.

Funded by the European Union Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) programme and Plymouth University, ‘CogNovo’ will involve a consortium of 23 academic and industrial partners from around the world studying the role of novelty, innovation and creativity in cognition.

Through a series of linked projects, 26 PhD students based at the Institute will explore the brain-basis for creativity, how creativity emerges through social interaction and how creativity and curiosity lay the foundations for problem solving capabilities.

Students will also participate in a series of intensive, interdisciplinary workshops to broaden their knowledge and hone their research skills, and will enjoy secondments to academic and industrial partners across the world.

The Cognition Institute is an interdisciplinary centre for cognitive research based at Plymouth University that spans psychology, neuroscience, robotics, humanities and the arts.

Professor Sue Denham, coordinator of CogNovo and Director of the Cognition Institute, said: “Creativity is not restricted to making works of art or writing prose and poetry, but is also fundamental to our ability to respond, understand and engage with the world.  The Cognition Institute is built upon the principle that interdisciplinary research is the way forward for cognitive science.

“This highly prestigious project will help us advance scientific research into cognitive innovation and will enable us to train the next generation of researchers to be highly creative, critical and innovative thinkers.”

The project begins in October 2013 and will run for four years.