Three FSE researchers receive NWO M1 grant

Three researchers from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (RUG) will receive an ENW-M1 grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO): Dr. Antonija Grubišić-Čabo, Prof. Robbert Havekes and Prof. Jan Komdeur. They will each receive EUR 400,000 for their research on 2D materials, memory recall in Alzheimer's disease and the influence climate change has on animal behavior.

M-grants are intended for innovative and high-quality research with scientific urgency. An M-1 grant is awarded to projects led by a single researcher.

Material Maestro: Substrate as a Tuning Key for 2D Materials

Dr. Antonija Grubišić-Čabo, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials 
In our three-dimensional world, there is a remarkable group of materials called two-dimensional (2D) materials, made up solely of a surface. This unique feature makes them extraordinarily sensitive to their environment. Rather than seeing this sensitivity as a limitation, our project views it as a unique opportunity. By placing 2D materials on specially patterned surfaces, we aim to leverage this sensitivity to precisely control and modify their properties. This innovative approach opens avenues to design and craft one-of-a-kind 2D materials with a range of distinctive properties.

Restoring access to hidden memories in the aged and Alzheimer brain

Prof. Robbert Havekes, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences
Forgetting is a natural process that takes place daily in everyone’s life. However, forgetting can become troublesome, as happens with aging, and even pathological, as in brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recent work has suggested that forgetting may be a result of the inability to recall memories rather than information loss. In this project, we will examine what molecular mechanisms underlie the difficulty in recalling information and aims to prevent amnesia by restoring access to memories thought-to-be-lost due to aging and the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Adaptive Social flexibility: a powerful mechanism to cope with a rapidly changing world

Prof. Dr. Ir. Jan Komdeur, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences
In the current era of rapid and extreme climate change organisms are increasingly facing hostile environments. We argue that group-living and cooperative breeding are strategies which enable animals to adapt to poor and unpredictable environmental conditions, and thus persist where otherwise they couldn’t. This project will investigate this hypothesis in a natural avian population, determining if sociality increases in response to severe conditions, whether this increases seasonal reproductive output, and also decreases variance in that output across seasons. Finally, result from this project will tell whether sociality facilitates adaptation to extreme and unpredictable changes in the environment.

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Twenty-three innovative research projects awarded through Open Competition Domain Science-M programme (NWO news)