A study into how the brain and body respond to stressful situations has received the highest scientific grant in the Netherlands. Neuroscientist Karin Roelofs of Radboud University is researching, among other things, the usefulness of the so-called ‘freeze response’. Thanks to the Spinoza Prize, she will receive €1.5 million for further research.
The freeze response turns out to be very important in dealing well with stressful situations. People who make good decisions under pressure have a very low heart rate, while the rest of the body is still ‘switched on’. It is as if you are pressing the accelerator and the brake pedal at the same time. This gives the body time to make a good decision before taking action.
The research has also led to a concrete application. A VR game allows police officers to train this useful freeze response during their education.
Roelofs wants to use the €1.5 million for fundamental research. “I want to explore how we can influence the brain itself so that people respond better to stress.”
Influencing proteins
Chemical biologist Hermen Overkleeft has also received the Spinoza Prize. The professor of bio-organic chemistry at Leiden University receives the grant for developing methods to influence human proteins. The Dutch Research Council, NWO, which awards the prizes every year, says that Overkleeft belongs to the absolute world top.
Overkleeft’s research has enabled the development of new medicines for cancer and rare metabolic and autoimmune diseases. He wants to use the Spinoza Prize to give his research a “new direction and translate it into practical and clinical applications”.
Roelofs and Overkleeft are part of a group of four scientists who have received the highest Dutch scientific grants. NWO awarded not only the Spinoza Prizes, but also the Stevin Prizes.
The Stevin Prizes are awarded to scientists whose research has made a societal impact. These prizes go to professor of psychiatry Iris Sommer and media scholar Claes de Vreese. They will also each receive €1.5 million for further scientific research.
Recognising psychoses through speech
Sommer is professor of psychiatry at UMC Groningen. Among other things, she developed an AI application that can recognise a psychological relapse based on speech.
Sommer is also committed to psychiatric treatments for women. She researches the influence of hormones on psychoses. NWO also praises her book The Female Brain, with which Sommer “builds a bridge between science and society”.
Sommer wants to use the prize to support young researchers in her team. “I can now give them security for years,” she says. In the coming years, she also wants to focus even more on women’s mental health.
AI and democracy
The other Stevin Prize goes to Claes de Vreese, professor of AI and society at the University of Amsterdam. In his research, he examines the rise of AI, the power of Big Tech and the future of democracy.
NWO says he is receiving the prize because he is also committed to communicating his research. In doing so, he has made a societal impact. De Vreese sees the prize as an encouragement for his work. “Receiving the Stevin Prize is overwhelming and an honour.”
