Report on the research stay in Harvard Graduate School of Education
Mag. Dr. Chiara Banfi
I used the funding of the Visiting Award for High Potentials 2024 for a research visit in the laboratory of Nadine Gaab, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I spent seven weeks in Boston (MA) between 1 September and 17 October 2025. I worked in the GaabLab, located on 10 Church Street in Cambridge (MA).
My research stay was originally planned with two main goals: 1) To expand my knowledge and expertise of neuroimaging methods and strengthen my scientific network by preparing a manuscript in co-authorship with Prof. Gaab and her lab members; 2) to establish a long-term collaboration with Prof. Gaab in order to prepare a grant proposal for submission as ERC Starting grant. Both these goals were achieved. I discussed the planning of a future publication in collaboration with Prof. Gaab. We agreed on the aims and study design, talked about relevant literature and organized the general idea. I will now analyze the MRI data in collaboration with the MRI lab Graz and will send the manuscript to Prof. Gaab to receive her feedback as a co-author. I also had the opportunity to present my research plan for an ERC Starting Grant proposal to Prof. Gaab and her team during a lab meeting. I received constructive feedback by all team members regarding methods, presentation style and the rationale of the overarching idea. I will work hard to improve the grant proposal according to this feedback and submit it in fall 2026.
In addition to these activities, I audited Prof. Gaab’s course on Education and Neuroscience, which was very inspiring for my own future teaching activity. I learnt about diverse tools and materials that can be used to introduce neuroscientific content to students that do not yet have extensive experience with the topic. I engaged in science-to-public activities and experienced different formats of students’ interaction that I will adopt in my future courses. Within the context of this course, I also had the possibility to visit the MRI laboratory, located close to the Harvard campus. It hosts a 3 Tesla Siemens MRI scanner equipped with a mock scanner for pediatric investigations with young children.
In sum, the research stay was very enriching. I exploited new opportunities of networking and collaboration, which will expand the breath of my research work and improve its quality. I further gained new models and ideas about teaching strategies and content, and I am keen on applying them in my own courses.
Last but not least, my family travelled along with me and this was simply fantastic, as I would have missed my husband and 9-month-old child very much being abroad. I am very grateful for their support throughout this visit and for the exciting experiences we had together as a young family. We even got on the newspaper…