Cognition Institute launches International research project

Psychology and cognition experts at Plymouth University have launched an international research project after securing a prestigious multi-million Euro grant.

Jointly funded by the EU Marie Curie initiative and Plymouth University, ‘CogNovo’ is a multi-national doctoral training network that offers research training in cognitive innovation, both as a new field of scientific investigation and as a strategy for research and innovation.

The €4.1 million European Union Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN), involving a consortium of 23 academic and industrial partners from around the world, has helped to fund 25 PhD positions, each devoted to studying a different aspect of the role of novelty, innovation and creativity in cognition.

Professor Sue Denham, Director of the Cognition Institute, which is leading the project, said: “Creativity is not restricted to making works of art or writing prose and poetry, but is also fundamental to our ability to understand and engage with the world.

“Through the Cognition Institute, and CogNovo in particular, we are working to advance scientific research into cognitive innovation and to train the next generation of researchers to be highly creative, critical and innovative thinkers.”

CogNovo attracted over 200 applicants and runs for four years. The 25 new researchers now in Plymouth come from over 15 different countries across the world - a truly multinational team. Each researcher will be supervised by a multidisciplinary team of experts and will have extensive opportunities for secondment to international academic and commercial partners including Aldebaran Robotics, Sony Computer Science Lab, Kin Design and the Max-Planck Institute, Berlin.

Professor Denham added: “CogNovo will enrich the lives of early career researchers by offering them many opportunities to broaden their knowledge and experience. This diverse mix of psychologists, artists, computer scientists, film scholars, neuroscientists and roboticists will, we hope, act as a melting pot for triggering exciting new ideas and insights. CogNovo offers a new way for educating the researchers of the future; watch this space!”

For more information on CogNovo visit www.cognovo.eu