FENS Hertie Winter School: Learning and networking for the next career step
Science needs lively exchange about exciting ideas and the latest findings. Being able to meet leading researchers in their field and discuss their work is therefore an important factor for young scientists in planning their future research work and building scientific networks. Scientific schools have proven to be an effective way of facilitating intensive exchange between young and established researchers. The principle is that leading researchers in a particular field (“faculty”) are brought together with a manageable number of particularly promising young scientists (“students”) for around a week. The young talents exchange ideas with each other, receive suggestions from experts for their future research careers, and establish international contacts. In cooperation with the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), the Hertie Foundation has been runing a one-week winter school with around 40 participants once a year since 2003. Since 2026, it has been organized by the Instituto de Neurociencias de Alicante (Spain) and also includes a special focus on neuroscientific methods.
FENS Hertie Winter School 2026
The next FENS Hertie Winter School will take place from January 11 to 17, 2026. The topic of the neuroscience school is “Single-cell and spatial omics to understand brain heterogeneity.” The scientific chairs are Gonçalo Castelo-Branco (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) and Ana Mendanha Falcão (University of Minho, Portugal).
![[Translate to English:] Drei junge Forschende diskutieren vor einem Whiteboard mit Skizzen, im Hintergrund Laborgeräte.](/fileadmin/_processed_/6/c/csm_fens-kooperationen-labor-whiteboard_eea6149403.png)
Hertie Foundation Lecture – Forum of European Neuroscience
With several thousand participants, the Forum of European Neuroscience is the largest European congress in brain research. The congress takes place every two years in alternating European cities. Since 2004, the Hertie Foundation has sponsored one of the keynote lectures at this congress, which always attracts renowned researchers.
The eleventh Hertie Foundation Lecture took place on 29 June 2024 at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Vienna (Austria). The speakers were Prof. Dr. Gregoire Courtine and Dr. Jocelyn Bloch, scientists working at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). The title of their talk was "Neurotechnologies that reverse motor and autonomic paralysis".
The tenth Hertie Foundation Lecture took place at 11 July 2022 at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Paris (France) by neuroscientist Prof. Dr. Song-Hai Shi. The title of his lecture was "Assembly and operation of the neocortex".
The ninth Hertie Foundation Lecture has been held at 15 July 2020 at the virtual Forum of European Neuroscience in Glasgow (UK) by neuroscientist Dr. Karl Deisseroth (Chair: Fritjof Helmchen, Stanford). The title of his lecture was "New approaches to studying intact brain structure and function".
The eighth Hertie Foundation Lecture took place on July 8, 2018 at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Berlin. The American scientist Dr. Leslie B. Vosshall held a lecture on the topic "Thirst for blood: The neurobiology of mosquito behavior".
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Hertie Network & Academy. Das Hertie Network of Excellence in Clinical Neuroscience und die Hertie Academy of Clinical Neuroscience fördern und vernetzen exzellente Neurowissenschaftlerinnen und -Wissenschaftler. Das Programm ist ein einzigartiges Forschungsnetzwerk und Nachwuchsförderprogramm für die klinischen Neurowissenschaften.