Barbara Molz appointed as Research Coordinator

This new position marks an important step in strengthening the strategic coherence and coordination of research activities, across the institute and with our national and international partners.

Strengthening our research landscape

Barbara’s role focuses on supporting the Managing Director and the Directorate in navigating the increasing complexity of today’s scientific landscape. She will contribute to the development and implementation of research strategies that span departments and disciplines, helping to foster a cohesive and collaborative research environment.

Supporting leadership and coordination

The Research Coordinator role is designed to operate at the institutional level. Barbara will work closely with MPI leadership to align research planning with broader scientific goals, facilitate strategic partnerships (such as with Radboud University), and coordinate cross-cutting aspects, including collaborative agreements, data governance, and ethics procedures. She will also play a key role in onboarding new group leaders and preparing for external evaluations.

MPI’s Managing Director Simon Fisher explains: “Barbara brings a unique combination of scientific insight and organizational know-how. She understands the demands of research from the inside, but she also has a talent for bringing clarity and structure to complex processes. Her strong communication skills, broad experience, and ability to get things done make her an invaluable asset to our leadership team. We’re delighted to welcome her to this strategic role.”

A bridge between science and structure

Barbara herself sees the position as an opportunity to use her prior experience of both science and support roles to build the connective tissue that supports high-quality scientific research: “What drew me to this role is the chance to help shape the larger research ecosystem: to work behind the scenes and remove friction points, streamline processes, and strengthen the connections between people, projects, and institutions. It’s about enabling the institute to function more smoothly and strategically as a whole.”

Please join us in congratulating Barbara and wishing her every success in this important new position.

More about Barbara Molz

Before taking on this new role, Barbara was a postdoctoral researcher in brain imaging genomics within the Language & Genetics Department, where she integrated large-scale multimodal neuroimaging with genetic data. She has led research using UK Biobank, a large biomedical database, to investigate how genetic variants influence human brain structure and language-related traits, and contributed to the ENIGMA consortium’s genome-wide meta-analysis of diffusion-weighted imaging.

Barbara holds a Marie Curie PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging from the University of York, where she studied the effects of congenital vision loss on visual cortex development using structural and functional MRI.  During her scientific career she gained broad insights into different research domains from wet-lab research, participant-related work, through to largescale data analyses. Notably, Barbara has also made significant contributions to the MPI community in extracurricular roles including DEI chair, deputy Gender Equality Officer, and her activities on a number of institute committees.