Funding and Research Support

Networks of the social brain. Connecting dog to human social brain function using comparative neuroimagingThroughout the years, our research has been consistently supported by several national and international grant agencies, such as the European Research Council (ERC), the EU Horizon Europe and FP7 framework (including Marie Skodlowska-Curie actions), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Vienna Science and Technology Fund, the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, the Austrian National Bank Anniversary Fund, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and – last but certainly not least – the University of Vienna (several intramural grants).

As of 2023, we are hosting or co-hosting projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF), and Horizon Europe (Marie Skodlowska-Curie action).  From the FWF this includes several projects (" I6839,"Unravelling the role of the opioid system in pain empathy", with Claudia Massaccesi; PAT1936023, "The role of incentives and uncertainty in prosocial behavior", with Claudia Massaccesi; "The influence of human attitudes on canine behavior", with Friederike Range, Vetmeduni Wien), two ongoing international collaboration projects (I3381, "The effects of stress on human social behavior" with Christian Ruff from University of Zurich; I6839, "Self-other distinction in borderline personality disorder", Ekatarina Pronizius), and two ESPRIT postdoctoral project (ESP339, "Dopamine and precision weighting of social signals" to Bianca Schuster; ESP602, "Networks of the social brain. Connecting dog to human social brain function using comparative neuroimaging" to Raul Hernandez). We are faculty members in two doctoral education programs, the FWF-funded doctoral college Cognition and Communication and the Horizon Europe funded Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Adolescence & Democracy. We also lead an interdisciplinary project working on dog and comparative neuroimaging ("Convergent evolution of the social brain? A comparative dog-human fMRI approach", with Ludwig Huber, Vetmeduni Wien, see ccnu.univie.ac.at). In addition, using intramural fundings we continue the research line of the Neuropsychopharmacology and Biopsychology Group (NBU) of the late Christoph Eisenegger, focusing on the neurochemical and psychoneuroendocrinological underpinnings of social behavior, and we have obtained intramural funding to investigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on stress, well-being, and social behavior. We are hosting one out of only two uni:docs CoBeNe Ph.D. scholarships won by Moana Drüe, who will work on research questions in the domain of environmental social neuroscience. We are also hosting an industry-research partnership project funded by the Wiener Wirtschaftsagentur "D.App: a novel mobile assessment solution for depression", where we collaborate with a start up company funded by SCAN-Unit associate Nace Mikus.

Very recently, our Lab Alumna and Associate Member Isabella Wagner has received an ERC Starting Grant - we are immensely proud of her and her stellar research.

All in all, we have obtained > 12 m€ in funding so far to support our research. We are VERY grateful to the funding agencies and, ultimately, the tax payers for their continuing trust in our work. We try to pay it back by thriving to make substantial contributions to both science and society.

See FWF Forschungsradar for an overview of FWF funded projects.