Rhein-Main Universitäten (RMU)

BRIDGES investigates how neurocognitive processes can be connected across biological, engineered, human and societal levels – and what changes when measurements, models and interventions cross the interfaces between these levels.

The interdisciplinary research project brings together the natural sciences, life sciences, engineering and the social sciences. Its central question is how phenomena such as attention or cognitive control can be studied in engineered neuronal systems, formally modelled, related to measurements in humans, and ultimately become consequential in societal contexts. BRIDGES therefore asks not only whether observations correspond across levels, but also what is transformed in translation, which new properties emerge, and how societal use feeds back on behaviour and measurement.

A particular focus lies on the interfaces themselves: Which relations between neuronal, cognitive and social processes can be tested empirically? When does a scientific measure become an organisational classification, a market signal or a basis for decision-making? And how do such applications in turn change people’s behaviour and potentially the validity of the original measurement?

BRIDGES involves Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Goethe University Frankfurt and Technical University of Darmstadt. The consortium is led by Anna-Lena Schubert (JGU) as Spokesperson and Antje Peters (Goethe University Frankfurt) as Co-Spokesperson. Together with Petra Ahrweiler (JGU) and Andreas Blaeser (TU Darmstadt), they form the BRIDGES PI team. International academic and non-academic cooperation partners complement the consortium, including EMOTIV and the Indian Institute of Information Technology Kottayam. BRIDGES is supported within the RMU Exploration funding scheme. The current phase is dedicated to identifying shared research objects, experimental and modelling interfaces, and a joint scientific architecture for the further development of the research programme.

Funding: Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), Exploration

Duration: July–December 2026; exploration phase extended, expected to run until September 2027.

Spokespersons and PI Team

Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Anna-Lena Schubert · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Co-Spokesperson: Prof. Dr. Antje Peters · Goethe University Frankfurt

Further Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Petra Ahrweiler · Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz; Prof. Dr. Andreas Blaeser · Technical University of Darmstadt