Towards the end of July, the members forming the E-MAPS team ­ Co-Directors Prof. Richard Muscat and Dr.John J.Schranz from the University of Malta, Prof. Clelia Falletti from the University of Roma La Sapienza, Prof. Nicholas Arnold from the DeMontfort University, Leicester, Dr.Cecile Vallet from ParisXIII and Prof. Juliusz Tyszka from the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, together with Mr Stefan Aquilina, Programme Administrator ­ met for the second colloquium of the 5-disciplinary, 5-University, European Masters Programme. Following the parameters set in the programmeís work plan, the team actively engaged in generating a first draft of the programmeís curriculum, a task funded by a grant put forward by the European Commission.

Key concepts defining the breadth of each academicís line of lecturing and research were presented. These concepts were informed by the three main areas of research which the Masters Programme will eventually address: Memory, Learning and Creativity. A number of lines of collaboration emerged, furnishing clear guidelines for the future interdisciplinary curriculum. This curriculum will comprise both compulsory and optional study-units, several of which will involve practical work in Neuroscience, Psychology, Theatre or Sports laboratories.

E-MAPS will be a taught Masters. The credit weighting that will be allocated to the study-units and to the final thesis was one of the central issues of this second colloquium ­ an issue which will have to wait for the full implementation of the Bologna process before it is settled definitively. The main lines of the curriculum are already emerging, however, foremost amongst which is the fact that most (if not, indeed, all) study-units will be jointly lectured by at least two members of the E-MAPSí team of academics and linking together at least two of the five disciplines involved.

One of the keystudy-units being designed will seek to bring together the diverse research methods that these five disciplines require, some of which have a quantitative orientation whilst others have a qualitative one. In line with E-MAPSí prime objective ­ that of enabling the graduates to become researchers in Memory and Learning Systems as the foundations for Human Creativity ­ this study-unit also sets itself another goal. It aims to provide graduates with the expertise needed for generating and making financially viable their own future working research realities in this stimulating territory.

For more info please contact: stefan.aquilina@um.edu.mt