BOZEN (LPA). At the recommendation of provincial councillor Philipp Achammer, the provincial government approved a two-year continuation of the agreement between the province and the Bernstein Network at its meeting on 21 January. This ensures that the ‘Valentin Braitenberg Award’ can continue to be awarded to researchers in the field of computer-assisted neuroscience by the Bernstein Network in 2025 and 2026.

‘Scientific achievements often take place away from the spotlight. But prizes such as the one in memory of Valentin Braitenberg also make it clear what great work our scientists are doing,’ emphasises State Councillor Achammer.

Valentin Braitenberg is one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. With his work, including as a professor at the University of Naples, the Bolzano-born neuroscientist contributed to a better understanding of brain functions. Braitenberg made significant contributions to the development of biological cybernetics and is considered a pioneer of computational neuroscience.

In his honour, the ‘Valentin Braitenberg Award’ has been awarded every two years since 2012 (due to the pandemic, the 2020 award was postponed to 2021) by the Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience. 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the South Tyrolean neuroscientist, which is why an award ceremony is also planned for this year.

The prize money of €5,000 has been donated by the province of South Tyrol since 2014. From 1992 to 1995, Braitenberg was chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the European Academy of Bolzano (now Eurac Research), which was founded in 1992, and in 1995 he was a member of the technical-scientific founding committee of the Free University of Bolzano, which was established in 1997.