All posts tagged: funding

Great News: ERC Consolidator Grant for the DCP Lab

Prof. Tobias Hauser has been awarded a prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The highly competitive funding provides €2 million over five years to support his research project CoNbI-OCD (Computational Neuroscience-based Interventions for OCD).  Only 349 out of 3,121 applications were approved in this funding round, highlighting the significance of this achievement and Hauser’s success in a highly competitive European selection process.  Rethinking treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is among the most common mental illnesses and can severely affect daily life. However, existing therapies do not work equally well for all patients. Hauser’s project aims to fundamentally improve treatment by combining psychotherapy with advanced technologies such as brain imaging, computational models of cognition, and generative artificial intelligence.  By integrating insights from neuroscience and AI, the project seeks to develop more effective and personalized therapies tailored to individual needs. Translating research into practical care A central element of CoNbI-OCD is close collaboration with people affected by OCD and mental health professionals. This ensures that new treatment approaches are not only scientifically robust …

Breaking Ground in Mental Health: New €6 Million Research Project led by Tobias Hauser

We are excited to share that our team has been awarded nearly €6 million in funding from the Wellcome Trust to investigate how the brain makes decisions—and why this process can become disrupted in mental illness. Every day, we make decisions both big and small. But for people with mental health conditions like schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), decision-making can become a major struggle. Some decide too quickly based on little evidence—a pattern known as “jumping to conclusions.” Others become stuck in doubt, unable to decide at all. Starting in February 2026, we will launch the largest study to date on these patterns. Using functional MRI, we will scan the brains of 150 people with schizophrenia and 150 with OCD to explore what happens in the brain when decisions go wrong. A key focus will be dopamine, a brain chemical that plays a crucial role in how we gather and process information before deciding. With both human data and mouse models, we aim to uncover how dopamine affects decision-making. This project brings together international experts …