Champalimaud Research

Through evolution, the process of life has organized matter into a myriad of interlinked forms from molecules to ecosystems. Neuroscience attempts to understand the behavior of individual organisms within this web in terms of the structure and function of their nervous systems. A major current challenge in neuroscience is to understand how properly functioning neural circuits support intelligent, adaptive behavior and how the dysfunction of these circuits can be prevented. Based on work over the last century, this appears to be a problem ripe for progress but which may demand a paradigm shift in current thinking and approaches. The Champalimaud Research (CR) seeks to facilitate the quest of scientists to forge new links between nervous system function and behavior. The scientific goals of the programme are represented not by a particular field within neuroscience, but by the full intellectual scope of the scientists of the programme. The aspiration of the CR as an organization is to help those scientists to reach their full creative potential and to promote collective achievements beyond those reachable by individual scientists or laboratory groups. This is a challenge that we believe demands that we examine, question and attempt to improve the scientific processes itself. Toward this end, the vision of the CR seeks to promote an institutional culture based on the following aims:

To maximize cooperation without sacrificing independence and diversity of thought;
To foster good life quality, recognizing that well-being and productivity go hand in hand;
To be a hub for scientific interaction, engaging our peers in productive exchange rather than competition;
To share our knowledge not only within the scientific community but with the community at large;
To continually renew the organization itself, nurturing new scientific approaches and the organizational structures that encourage them. If we are successful, the legacy of the CNP will be not only in advances scientific knowledge but advances in the process by which scientific knowledge is sought. The CR also hosts the International Physiology and Neuroscience Doctoral Programme (INPDP), a PhD programme in neuroscience that includes one year of intensive training to provide a broad foundation for innovative interdisciplinary work in basic or applied neuroscience, especially in the areas of neural systems underlying behaviour.