Overview
Health and Biomedical Research
Mind, Body and Culture
Biology and Environment
Data, Knowledge and Artificial Intelligence

Research centres Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences Research Mind, Body and Culture

Mind, Body and Culture

Strand leader: Prof Giovanna Colombetti and Dr Rebecca Lynch

Researchers in the Mind, Body, and Culture cluster share an interest in questions pertaining to the nature of the mind and its relation to the body and the environment, including the sociocultural environment. A distinctive and unique feature of this group is that it takes a broad and interdisciplinary perspective on the mind — understanding it not just as a set of problem-solving capacities, but address it also in its affective, experienced, socialized and enculturated dimensions.

The group meets regularly to discuss research from different disciplinary perspectives on these topics. Its members work in philosophy of mind and '4E cognition' (the view that cognition is embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended), phenomenology, philosophy of psychiatry, cultural sociology and anthropology, and more. We also host regular visiting PhD students and more senior researchers who work in these areas. We welcome participation in our biweekly "Cognition and Culture" meetings also from psychology, politics, neuroscience, and more.

Past and current research grants of the group include:

A Philosophy of Open Science for Diverse Research Environments (PHIL_OS)

Sabina Leonelli

A Philosophy of Open Science for Diverse Research Environments (PHIL_OS)

1 September 2021 - 31 August 2026

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Sabina Leonelli

Funding awarded: 1.999.964 euros

Sponsor(s): European Research Council Consolidator Award 101001145

Project webpage(s)

A Philosophy of Open Science for Diverse Research Environments (PHIL_OS)

About the research

This project will develop an empirically grounded philosophy of Open Science [OS] that emphasises the diversity of research environments around the world and articulates the conditions under which OS can leverage such diversity to promote good research practice.

The OS movement is transforming research, with OS policies adopted around the globe and widespread agreement on implementing key OS principles like openness, transparency and reproducibility. However, the philosophy of science underpinning the OS movement has not been clearly articulated. Moreover, there are significant epistemic risks in implementing OS across widely different research settings, such as the marginalisation of contributions from low-resourced environments. This raises questions about the relation between open and good science. To address these concerns, this project combines a philosophical analysis of the epistemic significance of research environments with empirical research on how researchers working in different environments enact and conceptualise OS. This “philosophy of science in practice” [PSP] approach is ideally suited to investigating the meaning and implications of OS for the conduct of research.

Building on Leonelli's experience as OS advisor, this project extends PSP by grounding conceptual analysis of scientific practice on qualitative research as well as collaboration with scientists and policymakers. The result will be a novel conceptualisation of OS that reframes its key principles by outlining how exchanges across environments can boost research excellence. This is a novel contribution to the philosophy of science, where (i) little attention has been given to how OS challenges existing accounts of knowledge production, and (ii) research on epistemic diversity has focused largely on disciplinary/theoretical perspectives.

The project also supports OS governance, by providing a framework that fosters research quality, inclusivity and fairness.

EURAMED rocc-n-roll

Professor Susan Molyneux-Hodgson

EURAMED rocc-n-roll

1 September 2020 - 30 August 2023

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Susan Molyneux-Hodgson

Sponsor(s): This project has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2019-2020 under grant agreement No 899995.

Project webpage(s)

EURAMED rocc-n-roll

About the research

The 3-year EURAMED rocc-n-roll project will produce a strategic research agenda (SRA) in the field of medical applications of ionising radiation and related radiation protection based on wide stakeholder input and consultation, a corresponding roadmap, and an interlink document, integrating the views and identifying synergies from the areas of radiation protection, health research and digitization with impactful guidance to the EC and stakeholders on future research. A fully integrated and coordinated European approach based on stakeholder consensus and existing activities in the field will be ensured.

The EURAMED rocc-n-roll consortium brings together relevant disciplines including radiation biology, dosimetry for medical applications, ethics, and clinical expertise, complemented by regulatory and health policy, AI, and industry experts.

Professor Molyneux-Hodgson will be leading one of these strands.

Details about the project are available here.

Exploring Diagnosis: Autism and the Neurodiversity Movement

Ginny Russell

Exploring Diagnosis: Autism and the Neurodiversity Movement

1 October 2015 - 30 September 2020

PI in Exeter: Professor Ginny Russell

Funding awarded: £ 509,391

Sponsor(s): Wellcome Trust

Project webpage: Exploring Diagnosis: Autism and the Neurodiversity Movement

About the research

This investigation explores the role that diagnosis plays in society and in medicine, using diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder as a case study.

While some patients seek diagnosis, others resist the use of diagnostic labels and argue diagnosis can be used as a form of social control. The investigation will explore how a diagnosis is experienced by adults. What are the benefits of, and objections to the diagnostic label? What are the consequences of diagnosis? How is diagnostic categorisation achieved by clinicians? What impact does a diagnostic label have on people's preconceptions? Autism diagnosis is particularly relevant because the label is increasingly applied, the diagnosis has clear costs and benefits, and its application is frequently contested.

The investigation will document and analyse the experiences of adults in the neurodiversity movement together with those who have sought a clinical diagnosis of autism. The neurodiversity movement comprises politically mobilised adults with autism who frame neurological difference as a valuable aspect of human variation and argue against medical diagnosis claiming it pathologizes normal behaviour.

Several workshops will teach film-making skills to adults with autism. Academic outputs will include journal articles, a book and a PhD thesis.

Cognition in Science

Adam Toon

Cognition in Science

1 October 2013 - 30 September 2015

PI in Exeter: Professor Adam Toon

Funding awarded: £ 177,910

Sponsor: EU Marie Curie Fellowship

About the research

Science as extended cognition: The role of material culture in scientific reasoning

A Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship

Historical and sociological studies show the importance of the material culture of science, including external representations, tools and instruments, and the physical layout of the laboratory. And yet these aspects of science are often assumed to be incidental to scientific reasoning itself. Recent developments in cognitive science challenge this assumption, revealing that many cognitive tasks are performed not by internal thought processes alone, but through skilful exploitation of material representations, tools and the wider environment. In fact, according to the thesis of 'extended' cognition, the relationship between internal thought and external objects is sometimes so close that external objects become part of the cognitive process.

Using methods from cognitive ethnography, this project will carry out three in-depth empirical studies, each focussing on a particular aspect of the material culture of science. Thee studies will ask: What is the precise nature of scientists' interaction with external, material devices? Which, if any, of these interactions might count as extended cognition? The final stage of the project will explore the profound implications of extended cognition for a range of issues in philosophy of science, including the nature of scientific theories and the relationship between science and culture.

The project will be highly interdisciplinary, drawing on and contributing to philosophy, cognitive science and history and sociology of science. By offering a new understanding of reasoning in scientific practice, the project will also contribute to wider issues of public concern, such as the role of expertise in policy-making and the nature of science education.

EMOTER: Emoting the Embodied Mind

Giovanna Colombetti

EMOTER: Emoting the Embodied Mind

1 January 2010 - 31 December 2014

PI in Exeter: Professor Giovanna Colombetti

Funding awarded: £ 428,313

Sponsor(s): European Commission

About the research

A 5-year project entitled Emoting the Embodied Mind (EMOTER). The project focuses in particular on: (1) the place of bodily awareness in emotion experience, (2) the relationship between natural purposes and emotions, (3) the extended nature of emotions, and (4) how to reconceptualize rationality and control from an embodied-emotional mind perspective. Part of the project involves a collaboration with Kim Wright in the Mood Disorders Centre (University of Exeter), Peter Cannon (Massey University). Tom Roberts is the Postdoctoral Fellow on the project.

Sponsor: European Research Council (ERC)
Project award: 685,301 euros

Between the clinic and the laboratory: Biomedical research in praxis

Christine Hauskeller

Between the clinic and the laboratory: Biomedical research in praxis

1 April 2009 - 30 September 2012

PI in Exeter: Professor Christine Hauskeller

CI in Exeter: Professor Dana Wilson-Kovacs

Sponsor: ESRC

Project webpage

Between the clinic and the laboratory: Biomedical research in praxis

About the research

(Work undertaken as part of the Egenis core grant.) The use of stem cells in novel medical applications is seen as an interdisciplinary, collaborative pursuit. Clinicians and scientists work together to understand the issues involved in the advancement of successful treatments. A key role in these developments is held by the clinician-scientist – a new professional role emerging at the interface of the laboratory and the clinic. The clinician scientist is the linking lead actor with actual and recognized expertise in both science and medicine.This project documented the position of clinician-scientists in the context of stem cell research, and examined how different professional outlooks and distinct organisational structures facilitate the development and progress of stem cell research and how divisions of labour and hierarchies of expertise are established and maintained in this process.