Five Hamburg-based research institutions are joining forces to form the ELLIS-Unit Hamburg. Their goal: to collectively strengthen research in machine learning, build international networks, and support doctoral and early career researchers. On October 29, 2026, the new site will be admitted to the European network of excellence ELLIS. The participating institutions are the University of Hamburg (UHH), the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), and Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (HSU/UniBw H).

Humans and vertebrates go through various stages of sleep, including REM (rapid eye movement) sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and muscle twitches. Can a similar sleep state be observed in spiders? Researchers from the Institute of Organismic Biology at the University of Bonn investigated this in the Australian jumping spider Portia fimbriata.

What does it take for an emerging research field to thrive? In a recent article in Neuron, 2026 Valentin Braitenberg Award recipient Xiao-Jing Wang looks back at the funding initiatives, research centers, and collaborative programs that helped establish theoretical and computational neuroscience. His account highlights the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, established in Germany in 2004, as one such initiative.

Emma Lehmann is a master’s student in Cognitive and Integrative Systems Neuroscience at the University of Marburg, Germany. Having recently joined the Bernstein Network, she attended the Bernstein Conference in September 2026 — her first time participating in a scientific conference. In this article, she shares her personal impressions of the three days of the Main Conference.

Researchers at the University of Cologne are heading a new collaborative project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space to investigate how technologies are changing our understanding of sadness, anxiety, and pain.

A study published in PNAS reveals a common principle underlying joint movement, and shows that ageing weakens the propulsive strength in all species studied. New open-source software enables movement patterns to be compared across species.

A research team led by the University of Bern has developed a novel learning mechanism for neural networks modeled after the human brain. “Spike-based Alignment Learning” uses random fluctuations in the activity of artificial neurons to reveal asymmetric connections, allowing synapses that are far apart to autonomously align with one another without communicating directly. This approach could help us better understand learning processes in the brain and develop robust, energy-efficient, brain-inspired computer systems.

From September 28 to October 1, 2026, more than 600 researchers from around the world will gather at Goethe University Frankfurt to discuss current questions in Computational Neuroscience. Highlights include the presentation of the Valentin Braitenberg Award to Xiao-Jing Wang and a special evening event celebrating the 100th birthday of the award’s namesake.

The European Research Council (ERC) is supporting scientists Prof. Dr. Elisa Oberbeckmann, Dr. Sophie de Vries and Dr. Tristan Manfred Stöber with ERC Starting Grants of €1.5 million each for a period of five years.

When mice and primates move, their visual perception changes in very different ways. LMU researchers show that the same principle underlies this difference.