CEN · Cerebellum and Emotional Networks

This Innovative Training Network (ITN) brings together leading European research labs for the interdisciplinary study of cerebellar contributions to survival circuits and emotional behaviour. The ITN will provide structured training of highly skilled early stage researchers (ESRs) as a European Training Network (ETN), involving seven beneficiaries (based in five European counties), and nine non-academic partners providing complementary training in the healthcare, charity and industrial sectors. The ETN will develop a testable framework to understand cerebellar contributions to emotional behaviour in both health and disease. This framework will convey the fundamental principles and basic functionality of cerebellar contributions and will be firmly rooted in neurobiology - defining the neural circuit processes that occur in the cerebellum and across the key brain areas that support emotional responses. A broad range of skills and technologies are needed to achieve this goal. Our ETN will be unique worldwide in bringing together internationally-recognised research groups with complementary skills spanning computational, cellular, whole animal systems and clinical expertise to train a new generation of ESRs to address this challenge. To foster translation from bench to bedside, we will use comparable paradigms and data analysis pipelines in all our ESR projects. A key aim of our consortium is to share and combine knowledge in the field of cerebellar research and in the field of anxiety disorders. The information gained will inform the development of new therapeutic strategies for individuals suffering from emotional disorders.