The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research has been renewed for another five years, allowing its frontier research on psychiatric disorders and cognitive development to continue at UCL until 2030.
The decision to renew came in July 2024 and was made by the Max Planck Society (MPS) President, Professor Patrick Cramer, after a peer review. The new term of the facility based at Russell Square in Bloomsbury and its partner, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, will run from January 2026 to December 2030.
The Max Planck Society operates over 80 research institutes, mainly in Europe and the US, with most Centres typically undergoing two funding cycles, the initial grant and a renewal. The UCL Centre's upcoming second renewal (third five-year funding period) is considered exceptional.
First established in April 2014, the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research is a product of the fruitful partnership between the Max Planck Society and UCL that began in 2011. The Centre continues to drive innovation and discovery in critical fields such as psychiatry, neuroscience and ageing.
Headed by Professor Ray Dolan (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) and Professor Ulman Lindenberger (Max Planck Institute for Human Development), the Centre is dedicated to studying the causes of psychiatric disorders as well as the causes of individual differences in cognitive development, with an emphasis on adulthood and old age.
Computational approaches aim to bridge the gap between neuroscience and the phenomena seen in psychiatric disorders by developing models of how the brain works. The models are then linked to behavioural measurements and brain function changes, offering insights into maintaining cognitive function in old age and improving the recognition and treatment of psychiatric disorders.
Co-Director of the Centre, Professor Ray Dolan, said: "We are delighted to receive this endorsement from the Max Planck Society. We look forward to furthering advances in computational psychiatry and contributing to ever closer ties between UCL and the MPS."
Professor Geraint Rees, UCL Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) said: "We at UCL are immensely proud of our longstanding collaboration with the Max Planck Society. The prospect of another five years of pioneering research and innovation from the Centre fills me with great excitement.
"This renewal is a powerful endorsement of the exceptional work being done here in the field of computational psychiatry, and I am eager to see our partnership with MPS flourish well into the future."
Running alongside the Max Planck UCL Centre is the International Max Planck Research School on Computational Methods in Psychiatry and Ageing Research (IMPRS COMP2PSYCH), which currently has funding secured until 2028. IMPRS COMP2PSYCH teaches and trains concepts and methods from computer science and statistics in relation to substantive research questions in psychiatry and lifespan psychology.
And in May 2024, UCL launched a new Research Visiting Fellowship Scheme with the Max Planck Law (MPL) network. The scheme is another key milestone in the longstanding relationship between UCL and the Max Planck Society and will enable up to two UCL Laws academics to undertake research visits of one to three months at any of the nine MPL institutes.
