Dr Rachael Miller (Harrison) has been awarded a five-year £1.25 million European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for a groundbreaking study into the minds of birds.
The project, based at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall, is entitled: "Avian Minds: Investigating the Evolution of Executive Function."
It will deliver the first large-scale, multi-species empirical investigation of a suite of executive functions - working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility - which are core cognitive processes that enable everyday functioning, influencing learning as well as mental wellbeing and disorders.
The research will use birds as a powerful model system varying in executive functions, life history and ecology, and leverage Dr Miller's co-leadership of the ManyBirds Project - a global open-science network of 120+ researchers across 24 countries.
Dr Miller said: "I am delighted to have this amazing opportunity for funded research to comprehensively explore the evolution of executive functions, through in-depth single species and established big team science approaches.
"Specifically, we aim to test the structure of executive functions, identify evolutionary drivers, assess correlations between executive functions and other behaviours, like innovation, and conduct cross-taxa comparisons with humans and other species.
"Look out for upcoming Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Assistant positions in 2027 onwards."
To find our more about Dr Miller's work, visit: www.drrachaelmiller.com
The ERC has awarded a total of €705 million in new Starting Grants to "back Europe's next generation of researchers".
