The day started off with an opening talk by Richard Ridderinkhof, ABC’s Scientific director, who presented the new strategic mission of ABC. He highlighted that while ABC has been successfully in fostering interdisciplinary research and facilitating a variety of novel smaller-scale research lines, to bring things to the next level and transform these in durable interdisciplinary research lines it was key to improve its visibility and thematic profiling. 

ABC aims to achieve this by enhancing internal cohesion and external visibility, by encouraging collaboration and formation of alliances with other consortia currently working in related fields in Amsterdam, and internationally.  

ABC themes

Briefly, the new thematic areas will be

1. Decision-Making, Impulse Control & Rationality (by far the largest theme, including the keywords Emotion, Reasoning, Economic, Social, Motivation, Action, Control, Executive Function, Addiction)
2. Plasticity, Memory & Language (including Learning)
3. Perception, Attention & Consciousness 

These will be across transversal cross-disciplinary perspectives including

• from molecule to mind to medicine;
• (neuro)computational modeling;
• individual differences within and between populations;
• comparative & evolutionary perspectives.

These themes will be developed further for an even better framing.

In addition ABC strives to enhance:

• Collaboration with IAS, to promote development of ABC proposals for large-scale grants
• Foundation of a new Amsterdam alliance network of brain and cognitive sciences.

For further details on the ABC mission statement read here

The day focused the spotlight on young scientists, who are actively involved in the projects supported by ABC. The program consisted of short department highlights or pitches, to give insights in their work. We hope that these introductions will create the basis for new collaborations, and lay the foundation for building new networks, by connecting the wonderful treasures that are held within ABC.

Highlight and Pitch talks

During the day there were 2 fantastic rounds of highlight talks, followed by an exciting and dynamic session of pitches. This format allowed for a lively discussion and questions, both during the sessions, as well as during the breaks. The presentations highlighted the large variety of topics across all fields from social sciences, linguistics, psychology, cognitive sciences and fundamental neuroscience.

The day ended with a cozy dinner and drinks in the patio of “De Brakke Grond” where lively discussions continued on the future of ABC, sharing ideas and getting to know new colleagues.

Thanks to all the speakers and everyone who visited for another great ABC Day, and we hope to see you again next year!

All photos by Juul op den Kamp