Brigit Toebes awarded MSCA funding for interdisciplinary research on psychedelic therapies

Brigit Toebes, Professor of Health Law in a Global Context at our faculty, has been awarded funding through the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Doctoral Networks programme. With this European grant, she will appoint a PhD candidate within the international research project INTEGRATE (Interdisciplinary Network for Training, Education, and Growing Research into Applications of and Therapeutic Expertise around Psychedelics).

INTEGRATE

The INTEGRATE project aims to establish a strong interdisciplinary European network for training so-called T-shaped experts: early-stage researchers who combine in-depth expertise with broad interdisciplinary skills in the field of psychedelic therapies. The network will contribute to the safe, responsible, and ethical integration of these therapies into mental health care.

Within this project, Toebes collaborates with Professor of Psychology of Religion Hanneke Muthert (Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society) and with international partners based in, among others, Berlin, Athens, Stockholm, and Copenhagen.

The PhD candidate appointed under this project will focus specifically on the legal dimensions of psychedelic therapies. Key questions include: What is required to have psychedelics registered as a drug? Do patients have a right to psychedelic therapy? And how do the patient and doctor relate to each other within this form of treatment?

The importance of interdisciplinary research

By awarding this MSCA funding, the EU highlights the importance of interdisciplinary and pioneering research at the intersection of health law, ethics, and mental health care.

This article was published by the Faculty of Law.