We are CHANGE

Kiki Zanolie, and Marieke Bos  presented the NeurolabNL Young research agenda together with Eveline Crone and youth ambassadors to Marcel Levi, chair of the Dutch Research Council. The research agenda is led by Annelinde Vandenbroucke and is a collaboration between 8 universities, in which youth share what the want to learn about the brain. 

Mental health is just as important as physical health. That is one of the important lessons learned during the coronacrisis. Anna van Duijvenvoorde, Kiki Zanolie, Marieke Bos, Jorien van Hoorn, and Berna Güroglu contributed to a large collaboration of over 20 research institutes on mental wellbeing composed into a review report by the 'Nederlands Jeugdinstituut'

Annelinde Vandenbroucke developed a series of vodcasts for, with and by adolescents with NeurolabNL Young in collaboration with experts Kiki Zanolie, Marieke Bos, Lucres Nauta-Jansen and Thimo van der Pol (in Dutch; also available as podcast)

Jorien van Hoorn explains in 'Rachel valt Binnen', a Dutch educational television program, about peer pressure. Click here to see the episode (in Dutch; see at 15 min 45 sec).

Lara Wierenga  published a public science book ‘Atlas van ons Brein’, a graphical journey through neuroscience in collaboration with graphical designer Dirma Janse. An interpretation and translation of research using insightful infographics. In this book I answer everything you wanted to know about your brain. 

Lara Wierenga tells on national television about the importance of the opportunities created by the Dutch government for young researchers [NOS journaal in Dutch; see at 9 min 54 sec]

Berna Güroglu and Anna van Duijvenvoorde as part of the Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) consortium, led by Eveline Crone, received a gravitation grant.  Berna tells about the aims of the consortium. 

Marieke Bos received a Grass Shoots grant from the Faculty of Social Sciences to develop interactive video material to train student's clinical skills. 

Marieke Bos received a YAL Outreach grant in collaboration with Lara Wierenga. With this grant they will develop a podcast which will be made for their Lorentz Workshop on ‘Rethinking sex differences in neuroscience of mental health’ 

CHANGE participated at Expeditie Next, a huge national science fair for children. We developed the brain game with true or false fun facts about the brain to debunk brain myths, in collaboration with Brain and Education Lab members.

Lara Wierenga and Marieke Bos received a grant to organize a Lorentz Center Workshop on “Rethinking sex in neuroscience of mental health”. They also received a Leiden University Fund grant enabling them to host a youth panel connected to the workshop.  

Samenweten, initiative from KNAW and NWO, talks with  Annelinde Vandenbroucke in a new blogpost about science communication activities of CHANGE members in collaboration with Brain and Education Lab members.  [Dutch]

Berna Güroğlu explains in 'Klokhuis' what happens in the brain when you see your friends. Klokhuis is an educational television program for youth on Dutch television. Click here to see the episode (in Dutch).

Science communication: appreciated and acknowledged!  

Annelinde Vandenbroucke, Neeltje van den Bedem, Berna Güroğlu, Iris Koele, and Kiki Zanolie, received an award by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences to continue their work in science communication. Together with Dietsje Jolles and Linda van Leijenhorst (Brain and Education Lab), they will develop new science communication products together with adolescents. 

Kiki Zanolie is selected to tweet for @NL_Wetenschap,  a twitter account in which every week a different Dutch scientist tells about their science and lives as a scientist. Keep an eye out in the summer of 2022.

Annelinde Vandenbroucke, Marieke Bos, Anna van Duijvenvoorde, and Berna Güroğlu, together with the project leaders of NeurolabNL Startimpuls 

received a science communication grant for NeurolabNL Young. In this project young people will design social media communication products to to inform peers about scientific findings on adolescence. 

Youth, brain science and law: new directions for research and practice. Anna van Duijvenvoorde organizes a webinar on February 18th discussing societal relevant issues regarding youth and law. For more information, or to register click here.

Berna Güroglu published in Nature Communications together with Elisabeth Schreuders, Barbara Braams and Eveline Crone. They found that friendship stability is associated with ventral striatum response in vicarious rewards.

Susanne Asscheman, Kiki Zanolie, and Marieke Bos investigated well-being of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Mood variability among early adolescents in times of social constraints: A daily diary study during the COVID-19 pandemic" is now available as pre-print

The e-book of Frontiers for Young Minds special issue is out! CHANGE members Anna van Duijvenvoorde, Bianca Westhoff, and Iris Koele contributed to this outreach initiative as authors of two articles, while Sabine Peters was one of the editors. We are proud of this amazing issue!

Boys have a less favorable academic career and girls a less favorable job career, but his is not due to differences in the brain or skills as reported by the Dutch Educational Council for which Lara Wierenga and Eveline Crone (SYNC Lab) performed literature research. Click here for the report (Dutch).

We are very proud of CHANGE Leiden member Anna van Duijvenvoorde for winning the prestigious Heineken Young Scientist Award for her research on the development of the brain and behaviour in adolescents. Congratulations Anna! 

CHANGE members Bianca Westhoff and Iris Koele, together with Ilse van de Groep (SYNC lab) reached a young audience explaining their research in Frontiers for Young Minds, an outreach initiative involving reviews by children and adolescents

You can find us on Tiwitter: @Leiden_CHANGE
Also, many of our CHANGE Leiden members are on Twitter; see our personal pages for our Twitter accounts