Greetings from Nathalie Sans, Director of Bordeaux Neurocampus

The team of the Bordeaux Neurocampus Department and I wish you happiness, health and success for the year 2022!

The year 2021 has certainly been marked, although less severely than 2020, by the health crisis. Nevertheless, our community was able to meet major challenges and had many successes and sources of satisfaction, starting with the award of the GPR Brain_2030, led by Daniel Choquet. This success shows the dynamism of our community and the support of the university for neuroscience in Bordeaux.

On an individual basis, several scientists from our community won prestigious prizes and national and international recognition in 2021: the 2021 Lamonica Grand Prize in Neurology for Giovanni Marsicano and the 2021 Rachel, Ajzen and Léon Iagolnitzer Prize of the FRM for Mireille Montcouquiol. Laurent Groc was also awarded the 2021 National Academy of Medicine Grant, Agnès Nadjar and Elif Hindié were awarded the IUF Prize and Erwan Bezard and Joel Swenden are among the 2021 “Highly Cited researchers” (see all the awards: https://www.bordeaux-neurocampus.fr/en/category/distinctions/ ). These individual successes are the result of intense teamwork and a collaborative network, as demonstrated by our great success in the ANRs and other funding in 2021 or the success of our startups, which have made the headlines over the past year!

Concerning the events we organize, the Bordeaux Neurocampus Day was a real success, as many of us came to the Haut-Carré for this moment of science, conviviality and exchange. The first edition of the Doctoral Research Award Day in June was also a great success and we will repeat this experience in 2022. The call for applications will be launched very soon. Let’s also note new events: Bordeaux Neurocampus Lectures and the Tech’ talks. The moments that animate Bordeaux Neurocampus are made possible thanks to the investment of all: NBA, members of the department council, researchers, Graduate Program’s team… Thank you!

2022 starts well with the announcement of an ERC Starting Grant for Fabien Wagner.

This new year will see the renewal of the university’s governing bodies, but also of the Bordeaux Neurocampus department. This new year is also, of course, the beginning of the new 6-year mandate and the setting up of the new institute directorships: Sandrine Bertrand for INCIA, Lucile Capuron for NutriNeuro and Marc Auriacombe for SanPsy. All our teams have been created and we welcome the new team managers. Our website will be updated very soon and the list can already be seen at: https://www.bordeaux-neurocampus.fr/recherche/equipes-recherche-neurosciences/

Another change is that in 2022, the School of Neuroscience becomes a service unit of the university and four platforms of the Neurocentre Magendie are restructured and become PUMA (Plateformes Unifiées de MAgendie). PUMA and the biocell platform of the IINS joined the very closed club of labelled platforms of the University of Bordeaux! We will come back to this shortly. With the Bordeaux School of Neuroscience – which will organise no less than 6 Cajal races in 2022! – and the Graduate Program, training will continue to be one of the pillars of the training/research axis of the Bordeaux Neurocampus department.

In 2022, Bordeaux Neurocampus will still be at your side to launch, promote, accelerate and celebrate your scientific projects and successes! The department will continue its animation missions, notably in terms of funding new projects with the “Seed projects” call for proposals and support for PhD students with the funding of travel grants for the FENS. This first effective year for the GPR BRAIN_2030 will allow us to implement the projects that have matured in recent years. Let’s not forget our actions aimed at the general public, notably with the Maison du Cerveau but also with Cap Sciences and the librairie Mollat, and let’s hope that our Semaine du Cerveau (Brain Awareness Week) will not suffer too much from the health situation. Thank you to all our partners without whom nothing would be possible!

Finally, while our usual meetings continue to keep our community alive – seminars, lectures as part of the Cajal courses, etc. – in person or via Zoom, I would like to invite you to our international conferences: Neurodev in May – for which registrations are now open – and “Synaptic Plasticity” in September.

May this year, which is the beginning of a new sextennium, be a year of renewal, serene and full of benevolence with beautiful common projects which will take shape, I am sure, with the GPR Brain_2030 and the Bordeaux Neurocampus department!

Take care of yourselves.

Nathalie Sans and the Bordeaux Neurocampus Department team