Scientists and societal partners throughout the Netherlands are working together on the “NeurolabNL Start Impulse” project: a subsidy that has its basis in the Dutch National Research Agenda. They have three years to conduct the first research projects on applications of neuroscientific knowledge in education and social safety for adolescents.

The Dutch National Research Agenda is the result of almost 12,000 questions posed to science by the Dutch population. In order to answer these questions, in 2017 the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science invited three routes to set up projects on the theme Youth in a Resilient Society. 

NeurolabNL is one of the routes that received a grant of 2.5 million euros to set up research on the themes of “education, safety, health and fundamental research” among adolescents. 

CHANGE Leiden is – amongst multiple other universities, knowledge institutes, and societal partners – involved in three of the four work packages.

As our society grows and becomes increasingly complex, it is critical that we better understand how we can improve societal and personal security, and resilience against threats to our security (for example in the form of transgressive behaviours). Efforts that increase security and resilience not only help reduce the presence of violence in society, but also have the potential to lower educational under-attainment, poor economic outcomes and the burgeoning mental health crisis.

Over the past two decades, knowledge about transgressive behaviours threatening our security have greatly increased, with direct applications in Philosophy, Archaeology, Psychology, Education, Law, Governance, Conflict, and Cooperation. At the same time, transgressive behaviours have largely been studied in relative isolation, according to one disciplinary angle at a time. 

PROMENTA is a multidisciplinary research center focusing on mental health, drug use and well-being in the general population. The Center is based at the University of Oslo and was established in 2019. 

The causes of mental health problems are many and complex. This is why PROMENTA carries out research on mental health and well-being in a holistic perspective - from genetics and biology to local communities and policy. PROMENTA is particularly concerned with understanding the processes that lead to inequality in mental health and well-being, and in contributing to reducing social inequality in health.

Most children develop well and find their way into society without many problems, but not all children manage to do so. We know that this difference is related to a combination of the child’s disposition and the environment in which he or she is raised. We want to understand the role of brain development herein, how children’s chances for thriving are determined by their parents, and how we can better guide children’s development.

The Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID) is an ongoing large-scale longitudinal intervention study in which 500 families with same-sex twins are followed over a six year period. L-CID was initiated at Leiden University and is now a collaborative project between Erasmus University Rotterdam (PI: Eveline Crone), Leiden University (PI: Lara Wierenga) and VU University Amsterdam (PI: Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg).  

L-CID has a cohort-sequential design with two cohorts: an early childhood cohort (ECC), aged 3-4 at wave 1, and a middle childhood cohort (MCC), aged 7-8 at wave 1. Annual assessments consist of alternating lab- or home visits during which behavioral and neurobiological data are collected. We are currently collecting data of the sixth wave of the ECC and the fifth wave of the MCC.

The collected data allows, among others, for testing which child characteristics shape the effect of (manipulated) environmental factors. The aim of L-CID is twofold:

The primary aim of our Research on Individual Antisocial Trajectories (RESIST) is to gain insight into individual developmental trajectories in young adults with a history of antisocial behavior. We do this by studying several underlying psychological and neurobiological mechanisms.

For this project, data will be used from a unique cohort of Dutch individuals who have been arrested by the police before the age of twelve years. This cohort was followed across adolescence and will be investigated again during their current developmental phase, emerging adulthood. During the present time point of the study, we will mainly focus on the neural correlates of self-concept, aggression regulation and vicarious reward learning. Within the project, similar data will be collected within a group of individuals without a history of antisocial behavior. 

We expect to provide a better understanding of the factors that lead some adolescents to persist in and others to resists antisocial trajectories.