Researchers at all career stages, as well as institutions and initiatives, are invited to apply or nominate candidates for the prestigious international €350,000 Einstein Foundation Award – the only prize dedicated to honoring outstanding contributions to strengthening the rigor, reliability, robustness, and transparency of research across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and life sciences.

The submission deadline is April 30, 2026, with winners to be announced at the end of the year. Further information: award.einsteinfoundation.de

A research team from the Visual Perception and Cognition Laboratory and the Cognitive Neurotechnology Unit at Toyohashi University of Technology investigated how the movements of autonomous mobile robots influence human emotional responses during passing encounters in virtual reality (VR) environments. The study found that when the robot moved monotonously in a straight path, participants initially exhibited increased arousal and skin conductance responses, which gradually diminished over repeated trials—indicating habituation. In contrast, when the robot’s motion included unpredictable pauses and restarts, both arousal and skin conductance responses remained elevated throughout the experiment, suggesting a lack of habituation and a greater tendency for participants to experience discomfort. These findings highlight the importance of predictability in robot behavior as a critical factor affecting human comfort in shared spaces. The results of this study were published online in the International Journal of Social Robotics on January 19, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-025-01341-3

The University of East London (UEL) is leading a major new neuroscience research project in partnership with The Queen’s Reading Room, founded by Her Majesty Queen Camilla, and The Bentley Foundation. Headed by Professor Sam Wass,  Director of the Institute for the Science of Early Years and Youth (ISEY) at UEL, the laboratory-controlled study will examine the psychological and physiological impact of shared reading and book clubs, exploring how reading together can reduce stress, strengthen social bonds and improve mental wellbeing.

Building on The Queen’s Reading Room’s groundbreaking 2024 study which found that just five minutes of reading can reduce stress by nearly 20% and lower loneliness by up to 70%, the research will apply rigorous neuroscientific methods to understand the wider health and social benefits of communal reading.

By analysing data gathered by the Eustat Innovation Survey, the researchers Josu Santos-Larrazabal and Jorge Gutiérrez-Goiria of the EHU-University of the Basque Country concluded that taxes, subsidies and public procurement are the most effective tools for promoting eco-innovation. Cooperatives can play a significant role in developing eco-innovations, such as reducing CO₂ emissions, which are not solely promoted by governments.