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The Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science (SCCS) is delighted to announce it has been selected by the University of Sussex as a Centre of Excellence, chosen for its collaborative and innovative research that addresses areas of global importance.

Internationally recognised as a world-leading research environment in this frontier area, the SCCS’s mission statement is to advance the scientific and philosophical understanding of consciousness, and to use the insights from this research for the benefit of society, medicine and technology. What is the self? How do we perceive the world? Do we have free will? What is the role of the body in consciousness? These are the types of questions which the SCCS’s thriving multidisciplinary community of researchers seek to explore.

Inspired by the idea ‘impossible until it’s done’, the University has selected the SCCS alongside 11 other new Centres of Excellence, all of which are carrying out highly innovative and potentially transformative research that will drive progress and make an important contribution to the planet and its people.

Looking to the future, the Centre aims to build on its existing strengths by providing a beacon for public engagement in consciousness. It plans to nurture the careers of early career researchers by providing mentorship, experimental facilities, collaboration opportunities and financial support. It also wants to develop and deploy teaching resources across both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Professor Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and Director of the SCCS, said, “The new Centre of Excellence in Consciousness Science will build on more than a decade of pioneering research at Sussex, shedding light on the deepest mystery in all of science and philosophy: the nature of conscious experience. By bringing together faculty, researchers, and students across four schools and covering disciplines from philosophy to computer science to psychology, our Centre will reaffirm Sussex as internationally leading in this area - and will enable us not only to make progress in consciousness science, but - and this is new - to explore and develop its many applications in medicine, technology (such as AI), and society.”

Commenting on today’s announcement of the 12 new Centres, Professor Sasha Roseneil, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Sussex, said, “The great research challenges of our time demand bold thinking and collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches. Sussex’s 12 new Centres of Excellence build on the University’s long history of ground-breaking and innovative research that transcends the traditional boundaries between disciplines. Together they promise to make great strides in tackling the most urgent problems that face people and planet – problems that, as Nelson Mandela once said, seem impossible to solve until they are done.”

Find out more about all Centres of Excellence.

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