The Moser research environment () is the informal name of a research environment established and led by the Nobel laureates

Edvard Moser Edvard Ingjald Moser () is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 with long-term col ...

and

May-Britt Moser May-Britt Moser (born 1963) is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She and her former husband, Edvard Moser, shared half of ...

at the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Norway and the largest in terms of enrollment. The university's headquarters is located in Trondheim (city), Trondheim, with region ...

(NTNU) in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The Mosers joined the university as professors of psychology in 1996, and formed their own neuroscience research group. The research group eventually evolved into several projects and research centers. The Mosers were awarded the 2014

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

"for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain."

History

The Moser research environment was established in 1996 as the neuroscience research group and laboratory of the Mosers at the Department of Psychology, NTNU. In 2002 their research group was given the status of a centre of excellence by the

Research Council of Norway The Research Council (also the Research Council of Norway; ) is a Norwegian government agency that funds research and innovation projects. On behalf of the Government, the Research Council invests NOK 11,7 billion (2022) annually. The Research ...

, and thus became a separate entity under the name Centre for the Biology of Memory (CBM), with government funding for ten years. The discovery of "

grid cells A grid cell is a type of neuron within the entorhinal cortex that fires at regular intervals as an animal navigates an open area, allowing it to understand its position in space by storing and integrating information about location, distance, an ...

" was made at CBM in 2005;Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience
Kavlifoundation.org. In 2007, Moser and Moser's research centre became a Kavli institute: The Kavli Institute do the fifteenth in the world, the fourth within neuroscience, the third in Europe, the first and only in Norway. Retrieved 6 October 201
Archived
at WebCite. the Mosers received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery in 2014 together with John O'Keefe. In 2012 the Research Council of Norway granted the Mosers another centre of excellence, known as the Centre for Neural Computation (). CMB was later continued as the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. The institute is also popularly known as the Moser Institute. The stated scientific goal is "to advance our understanding of neural circuits and systems and their role in generating psychological functions. By focusing on spatial representation and memory, we expect to uncover general principles of neural network computation in the mammalian cortex." The Moser research environment receives more than 90% of its funding from the Norwegian government. This includes centres of excellence funded by the Research Council of Norway, support from the university's own budget, and an annual major basic research grant from the government. The research environment has received smaller private donations; in 2007 CMB received an additional donation from the Kavli Foundation in the United States, and it has also received a donation by heiress Pauline Braathen. After the CBM funding expired in 2012, the Research Council of Norway appointed a new Centre of Excellence at the institute with funding until 2022, thus establishing the Centre for Neural Computation (CNC) in January 2013.Who we are and what we want
NTNU. Retrieved 6 October 2014
Archived
at WebCite. The CNC co-exists with the institute which complements the shorter-term projects at CBM/CNC, pursuing questions that demand a longer experimental time frame, aimed, ultimately, "to improve life and health by advancing the science of human cognition". The institute is headed by

while

heads the CNC centre. Other professors at the Institute are Menno Witter, Clifford Kentros, Yasser Roudi and Emre Yaksi.

References

External links

* Neuroscience research centers in Norway Norwegian University of Science and Technology {{Norway-university-stub