Call for Research Projects

This year has been unexpectedly complicated for all of us. We have had an ongoing threat to public health with a strong impact on economic activity in every country and organization. Scientific endeavors have been delayed in most research fields, and many conferences and symposiums have been postponed or canceled. 

The aim of this call is to catalyze and mobilize research in human behavior and brain-computer interfaces during this difficult time, by supporting outstanding research projects for 2 years of duration starting in 2021. This is our way of giving back to the scientific community and helping research projects start-up in the wake of COVID 19. 

Bitbrain's mission is to boost real-world research and real-life applications that enhance people's lives. For this reason, we welcome project proposals from academia or research institutions that are exploring neuroscience research in real-world settings. 

The deadline for submissions is Submit before September 21, 2020 (Anywhere on Earth, UTC-12).

A total of 236 research teams submitted their proposals for the 2020 Call for Research Projects in the topics of human behavior (Topic 1) and brain-computer interface (Topic 2).

We have received many outstanding projects, which have made this call highly competitive leading to a 2.3% of acceptance rate. Due to the quality of the proposals, Bitbrain, Tobii Pro, and Psychology Software Tools increased the total amount of the sponsorship over 170K€, which allowed to fund a total of 6 projects that will start in 2021.

Practicing plasticity: How collective rituals promote neurocognitive flexibility (Topic 1)

• Research team: Michael Lifshitz, Guillaume Dumas, Alexandre Lehmann, Samuel Veissière and Joshua Brahinsky
• Research Institutions: Lady Davis Institute / McGill University, Montreal, Canada; University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada; Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States

Establishing Signatures of Mind Wandering in the Real World: A Multi-Modal Approach (Topic 1)

• Research team: Julia W. Y. Kam and Robert T. Knight.
• Research Institutions: University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; University of California, Berkeley, California, United States

Context-dependent predictive gaze in natural behaviors (Topic 1)

• Research team: Neerav Goswami and Leslie C Osborne
• Research Institutions: Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham NC, United States; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham NC, United States

Predicting neuropathic pain episodes in spinal cord injury patients through BCI (Topic 2)

• Research team: Carmen Carrasco-López, Dario Salvi, Carl Magnus Olsson, Vanesa Soto-León, and Antonio Oliviero
• Research Institutions: IoTap, Malmö University, Sweden; FENNSI group, National Hospital for Paraplegics, Spain.

B2B: Brain-to-Brain Connectivity for the Real-time Monitoring of Social Interactions (Topic 2)

• Research team: Laura Astolfi, Jlenia Toppi, Maria Grazia Puxeddu, Febo Cincotti, Donatella Mattia
• Research Institutions: Dept of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.

CyberBrain: Cybersecurity in BCI for Advanced Driver Assistance (Topic 2)

• Research team: Enrique Tomás Martínez Beltrán, Mario Quiles Pérez, Sergio López Bernal, Alberto Huertas Celdrán and Gregorio Martínez Pérez.
• Research Institutions: University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain; Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland; University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

More information about the research projects can be found here: https://www.bitbrain.com/blog/winners-2020-call-for-research-projects

This initiative awards projects with up 150K€ total in Bitbrain equipment plus software licenses, and Psychology Software Tools and Tobii Pro selected products (see below).

Applicants should list all the equipment necessary to successfully carry out their research project proposal, selecting from these options, and irrespective of the cost:

• Bitbrain equipment: Systems specifically designed to facilitate research in real-world settings and include high-tech EEG brain sensing devices and 35+ complementary monitoring technologies, as well as Bitbrain's human behavior research software solutions for synchronized multimodal data acquisition and analysis. The equipment will belong to the awarded institutions once the project is completed, but they are free to use it for other types of research.
• Psychology Software Tools: E-Prime Licenses for up to two projects that need comprehensive stimulus presentation.
• Tobii Pro: Up to two projects may choose between the Tobii Pro Fusion 250 Hz remote eye tracking system or the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 50 Hz. In addition, a one year access to the Tobii Pro Lab software will be granted, to ensure successful analysis of the eye tracking related parts of the project.

Topic 1: Human Behavior Research
 

Scope: 

• We are looking for projects that expand the understanding of human behavior using multimodal approaches, preferably in ecological and natural conditions. 
• The research includes, but is not limited to, cognitive sciences, clinical research, education, developmental psychology, human performance, UX or human factors, neuroeconomics, hyperscanning, neuroaesthetics, etc.

Awards: 

According to the research needs of the project, the award may include the following:  

• Bitbrain equipment: Hardware: dry/semi-dry EEG systems in combination with a wide range of biosensors (GSR, BVP, ExG, etc) specifically developed to carry out real-world research, while favoring signal quality, usability, set up time, and user comfort. Software: SDK for real-time I/O and third-party data processing (LSL, Matlab, Python, BCI200, etc); SennsLab software for synchronized data collection of 35+ types of biosensors and other research modalities including eye-tracking, cameras, microphones, etc.
• Psychology Software Tools: E-Prime Licenses for projects that need stimulus presentation.
• Tobii Pro: Up to two of the winning projects total may choose between the Tobii Pro Fusion 250 Hz remote eye tracking system or the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 50 Hz. In addition, a one year access to the Tobii Pro Lab software will be granted, to ensure successful analysis of the eye tracking related parts of the project.

Applicants should list all the equipment necessary to successfully carry out their research project proposal, selecting from these options, and irrespective of the cost.

Topic 2: Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI)
 

Scope: 

• We are looking for projects that expand the introduction or usage of brain-computer interfaces in ecological and natural conditions. 
• Research project proposals should focus on the application of brain-computer interfaces in real-world scenarios, in areas such as immersive environments, neurorehabilitation, neuroadaptive technologies, hyperscanning, neuroprosthetics, etc.

Awards: 

According to the research needs of the project, the award may include the following:

• Bitbrain equipment: Hardware: Mobile EEG systems for brain-computer interfaces including dry-EEG devices and semi-dry EEG systems (8, 16, 32 and 64ch), with a very quick and easy setup and comfortable interface.  Software: programming tools with great compatibility with real-time I/O and third-party data processing (LSL, Matlab, Python, BCI2000, OpenVibe, etc).
• Psychology Software Tools: E-Prime Licenses for projects that need stimulus presentation.
• Tobii Pro: Up to two of the winning projects total may choose between the Tobii Pro Fusion 250 Hz remote eye tracking system or the Tobii Pro Glasses 3 50 Hz. In addition, a one year access to the Tobii Pro Lab software will be granted, to ensure successful analysis of the eye tracking related parts of the project.

Applicants should list all the equipment necessary to successfully carry out their research project proposal, selecting from these options, and irrespective of the cost.

In order to submit your application, you are required to download the Application Template available below. This Form Template will ask you to add the following information: 

• Contact information: Full name(s), contact information, project title, university or research institution, and duration. 
• Describe your project in English, a maximum of 3 pages. Do not forget to include all the information considered in the scoring criteria below: 1) Background and novelty with respect to the state of the art, 2) Research objectives and methodology, 3) Expected research outcomes, significance, and impact, and  4) Execution and dissemination plan.
  Please include all Bitbrain hardware and software required for the project, irrespective of the cost.

Please, download below the Instructions and Application Templates, available in both Latex and Word file formats, and send the document as a PDF. 

Send it over before the indicated deadline by using the application form, at the bottom of this page.

If you have further questions, please contact us at [email protected]. 

Find here the Terms & Conditions.

The jury will score the submitted projects on the basis of a list of criteria:

• Novelty with respect to the state of the art (1/10). 
• Research objectives and methodology (3/10).
• Expected research outcomes, with their significance, and impact (2/10).
• Execution and dissemination plan (1/10).
• Adequation of the project to the Call (1/10).
• Adequation of the research team to the Call  (2/10).

Projects will be ranked according to these criteria in each Topic, and awarded until the assigned budget is over. We expect to fund at least 2 projects in Topic 1 and 2 projects in Topic 2.