Malina Szychowska has been awarded over SEK 5 million by the Swedish Research Council for the project Navigating the sensory landscape: How our senses form spatial memories.

Can you describe the feeling when you realized that your application had been successful?

It was a really weird and special day for me, to be honest. For the whole day before they announced the results, I felt like I wanted to be invisible and just focus on my work and not think about the application.

Malina Szychowska

So I turned on music in my headphones and just kept going. I remember I looked at my watch every now and then, and thought that it is incredible that time passes, regardless if we want it to go slow, or stop, or go faster – time passes and the moment that you are waiting for, or the moment that you are anxious about, will come and will pass too.

When the clock turned 14:00, I downloaded the list of the approved applications and at first I didn’t even understand that my name was written there. I had to read it several times. I kept thinking that I read it wrong, or that there is another Szychowska that got her application approved, or that my name was there by mistake.

Then I looked out through the glass wall of my office and saw my colleagues standing there staring at me. Only after I went out to them and said that I got the grant, it hit me. I was just so happy and excited, and everyone around was so happy for me, it was a wonderful feeling. Getting this grant means so much to me as a young researcher. It feels amazing when all the hard work is appreciated this way, and when very smart people think that one’s research idea is worth pursuing.

Writing an application is a lot of work. Can you summarize the process from idea to finished application?

The idea for this project started to form when I began my postdoc position. I talked a lot with Jonas Olofsson (my current PI and co-applicant in the project application), I did a thorough literature search and learned a lot of new things about spatial memory and olfaction.

Malina in the sound lab. Photo: Jens Olof Lasthein

We also had meetings and discussions with two international experts in the fields of memory and spatial navigation (Christian Doeller, Professor at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, and Tora Bonnevie, Associate Professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology). They were both interested in this idea and happy to collaborate, which gave me more confidence in believing that I am onto something good.

Then, I applied for the ethics approval for the entire project and collected pilot data to show some preliminary results in the proposal, to prove that we really have the abilities and resources to pursue this research.

Getting this grant means so much to me as a young researcher.

Finally, I spent quite some time writing the application, preparing figures (I like when the product of my work is visually appealing and consistent, I think it improves intelligibility of the entire manuscript), discussing the application with Jonas,  re-writing the application, making the application fit perfectly into the limit of 10 pages, making sure the application follows the guidelines, and of course – planning the budget. It was indeed a lot of work but it paid off and I learned a lot in the process.

How does it feel to be a principal investigator for the first time?

That’s true, it is the first time I will be the PI. As Maria Larsson [Professor and Head of the research division] said to me: – It is a change of identity, quite a big change!

I expect that I have a lot to learn about how to manage a big project like this. I expect that I will have more different responsibilities; I will have to hire research assistants, decide how to delegate some tasks, and keep an eye on the finances and the entire project progress.

It feels overwhelming at times. However, I was always committed to doing high quality research and always tried to do my best in all the projects I participated in, and that will not change. I will still have my hands on the data collection (looking forward to scan participants in the fMRI!), analyses, and writing.

And when things get overwhelming, I know that I can count on support from my colleagues. I am really looking forward to starting this new stage of my research career.

Stockholm University has made a video with Malina about the research for which she has now been awarded reaserch funds.

Read more about Malina Szychowska
 

Some projects which recently were awarded research grants

Malina Szychowska has been awarded a research grant of SEK 5 054 000 by the Swedish Research Council (VR) for the project Navigating the sensory landscape: How our senses form spatial memories.

Hui-Xin Wang has been awarded a research grant of SEK 2 400 000 by the Swedish Research Council (VR) for the project Life course psychosocial factors and early signs of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Julie Lasselin has been awarded a research grant of SEK 6 057 368 by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ) for the project The importance of interoceptive prediction errors for negative emotions in illness.

Auriba Raza has been awarded a research grant of SEK 4 992 000 by FORTE for the project Remote work and behavior-related health in pandemic and post-pandemic period (Rework-health).

Linda Magnusson Hanson has been awarded a research grant of SEK 4 623 000 by FORTE for the project Relevance of organizational and psychosocial work environment for development of mental health problems across labor force entry.