The National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) in Affective Sciences is one of 20 NCCRs established by the Swiss federal government. With the University of Geneva as its home institution, the Centre coordinates collaborative research by psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, historians, economists, social scientists, and legal scholars.
In this introductory section we will outline some of the most important information concerning the nature of the phenomenon studied – emotion; the evolution of a new type of interdisciplinary research area - the Affective Sciences; the research objectives of the Centre, which spans the social and behavioral sciences as well as the humanities; and finally the promise for important transfer of knowledge and skills to many areas of application in society.
Specifically, the introduction covers the following questions: