Sixteen research teams, including the Kalsbeek group, will set up innovative collaborations that contribute to innovation in science and healthcare for the longer term. Each team has received a maximum of 750,000 euros from the program ZonMw Open Competition.
In search for the origin of our autonomic nervous system
The hypothalamus is a small brain area that controls all of our physiology via hormones and autonomic nervous system. Its neuro-endocrine neurons have been well-characterized since a long time. With the newest microscopes and molecular techniques, the group of prof. Kalsbeek together with researchers from Leiden University Medical Center, will now trace and characterize the neurons that control our autonomic nervous system.
Team science
With a view to team science, the program ZonMw Open Competition is specifically aimed at innovative and groundbreaking combinations of two or more research groups. The projects and the teams are assessed against criteria such as creativity, groundbreaking research of high quality, and the utilisation of knowledge via transmission and implementation through, among other approaches, the participation of stakeholders in the broadest sense of the word. The composition of the teams and the synergy between the different research partners was another important element in the assessment.