Thematic articles

Step 1. Find the projects, and build a coherent story linking them Using sensory research as an example, we would start with a set of related projects. For instance, on a molecular level, what is happening when we touch or smell something? An ERC grantee in Italy is using optogenetics to study how a rat’s whiskers generate neural impulses that help the animal form a spatial map of the world around it. A researcher, at Groeningen in the Netherlands, is studying how the membrane proteins in a common bacteria change when the creature ‘bumps’ into something – a phenomenon called mechanosensation. Another researcher, in Trondheim in Norway, is looking at the neural circuits inside zebrafish to see how they perceive a smell or taste. Yet another, in Britain: Examining how different sensations come together in the mind to form an overall picture, by studying synaesthetes (people who get the sensations mixed up.) And finally, from Stockholm: How do we combine all these senses to know where our own body parts are? Individually, each of these projects is answering an interesting question. But together, they start to tell a comprehensive story – a story that the ERC is writing – about how we sense the world. Each of our Science Plug-Ins would begin with a similar collection of thematically related projects, guided by our Advisory Board.