Outstanding Young Researchers Discuss Issues in Neuroeconomics

Outstanding young researchers from Asia, Europe and Latin America will gather at Heidelberg University from April 7 to 17, 2014 to discuss current research issues in the field of neuroeconomics, an interdisciplinary amalgamation of the neurosciences and economics. The 18 doctoral candidates are participants in and grant recipients of the Santander International Summer School “Frontiers in Neuroeconomics – How Social and Individual Context Matters for the Biological Mechanisms of Behaviour”. Together with internationally renowned researchers, they will explore how social and individual factors influence biological mechanisms of behaviour and human decision making. The summer school is being held at the International Science Forum Heidelberg with funding from Santander Universidades. Last year’s event, the first in this series, took place in Chile.

Neuroeconomics focuses on the individual as a consumer or actor in specific economic decision-making situations. Neuroscientific methods are used to study this behaviour. Of particular interest is how individual factors, physical and mental health and even social and environmental factors influence the human decision-making process and outcomes, as well as how these factors interact with contextual ones. These issues are the main topics of the Santander International Summer School, whose participants come from the fields of economics, behavioural and human sciences and medicine. Scientific directors of the summer school are Prof. Dr. Christiane Schwieren from the Alfred Weber Institute for Economics, Dr. Malte Stopsack from the Institute of Psychology, and Associate Professor Dr. Knut Schnell from the Center for Psychosocial Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital together with Dr. Santiago Sánchez Pagés from the University of Barcelona. In addition to the researchers from Heidelberg, experts from Japan, Switzerland and Spain will also be among the speakers, including Prof. Dr. Tatsuya Kameda from Hokkaido University, Prof. Dr. Lorenz Goette from the University of Lausanne and Prof. Dr. Rosemarie Nagel from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

In the framework of its cooperation with Banco Santander, Heidelberg University receives funding resources from the Santander Universidades Global Division, which are used for the organisation of international winter and summer schools with participants from Latin America, Europe and Asia. These events take place alternatively at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Santiago de Chile, the Heidelberg Center South Asia in New Delhi (India), the International Science Forum Heidelberg and a university in Japan. The summer schools set out to encourage mobility on the part of young scientists and support the emergence of new networks of excellence in research. The third summer school in this series will be held in November, once again in Chile. That event will focus on current research issues in astronomy. The fourth Santander International Summer School, being held in March 2015 at Kyoto University in Japan, is devoted to the concept of religion from a transcultural perspective.