Main activity of the Parmenides Foundation is to run the Parmenides Center for the Study of Thinking which is has been established in co-operation with the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. The center is organized similar to a Max Planck Institute. It tries to provide optimal conditions for advanced basic research and interdisciplinary co-operation, with minimized bureaucratic distractions and optional teaching activities at the university. The work of the foundation is based an interdisciplinary core team of approximately 15 scientists at present, a guest fellow program, and an international faculty of about 30 members. The faculty unites outstanding experts from the neurosciences, neuro-informatics, philosophy, cognitive psychology, linguistics and evolutionary biology.
Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, is in France the largest university devoted to science with 4000 researchers including professors, 3000 engineers and 30,000 students. The Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle de Paris (ESPCI) is a one of the best engineer school in the country with 60 students per year and about 300 researchers and professors divided into 18 laboratories. This school is directly linked to University Paris VI as well as to CNRS.
The Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS) was founded by Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn (Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1987) in 1997. ISIS houses 120 people of 28 different nationalities performing research at the interface between physics, chemistry and biology. In addition to the academic labs, ISIS is houses two established companies (BASF and Bruker) and two start-ups. AG directs the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry (LBC) in ISIS (17 people, comprising 8 molecular biologists, 3 chemists and 6 physicists). The LBC currently has 4 EC FP6 contracts: PROSA, INTEGRA, MIFEM, and INCORE. ISIS and ULP have 11 and 60 FP6 contracts respectively.
The University of Sussex was the first of the new wave of British universities founded in the 1960s. The major founding principle of Sussex was the encouragement of interdisciplinary research, a strength it still has today. The Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR) was created in 1996 as a joint research venture between the EASY group (from the department of Informatics) and the internationally leading Sussex Centre for Neuroscience (from the department of Biology). The initial aim of the centre was to encourage a two-way flow of ideas and methods between Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Although research in this area continues to flourish, the remit of the CCNR has broadened, and now encompasses a wide range of research at the interfaces of the computational and biological sciences. It currently houses 30 PhD students and 10 postdoctoral fellows and has 15 associated members of faculty (from the departments of Informatics and Biology).
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona was founded in June 1968. The UAB is internationally renowned for its quality and innovation in research. Figures in the academic year 2005 – 2006: 54 Departments; 31,660 students; 3,080 professors; 1,888 administrative staff; budget 321,375 K€.
Wageningen University is a leading European university in the life sciences, with 80 chair groups, 205 professors, 5,600 employees and ~6,000 students. The Laboratory of Genetics, which resides under the direction of Plant Sciences (~1,400 employees), has presently 8 permanent scientific staff (of which 2 full professors), 6 support staff, 5 postdocs, 15 PhD students and several MSc and BSc students. The laboratory is involved in the basic teaching of genetics, from molecular to population genetics, evolutionary biology and molecular ecology. The research within the laboratory involves the genetic characterization of natural variation and understanding the causes and consequences of natural genetic variation using micro-organisms and plants.
The University of Thessaly was founded in 1984 and it is a legal entity of public law with complete autonomy. The University is supervised and granted by the state through the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs and it is administered by the Senate, the Rector‘s Council, and the Rector. The University is comprised of 14 Departments organized in 4 Schools, and 2 independent Departments. The Department of Medicine is biggest in the University consisted of: 110 professors, 400 undergraduate students, 150 MSc students, and 200 PhD students.
