Neuroticism is a non-pathological personality trait established as a risk factor for emotional problems, but the cause of this relationship is unclear. The proposed project aims at making steps towards clarifying this effect from an evaluative learning perspective and at raising West University of Timisoara (UVT) as a leading contributor to this topic.

UVT has a proved potential for excellency but needs to upgrade its research practices in order to further translate it into actual scientific excellency. In this regard, a collaborative network will be set with two internationally leading research institutions: University of Milan Bicocca (UNIMIB) and Ghent University (UGENT).

In order to reach the overarching aim, we set specific objectives. The first goal is to increase the scientific profile of early stage researchers. This will be reached through direct knowledge transfer and peer learning (facilitated through joint research activities, advanced training, summer-schools, and short-term mobility), and by enriching their publication portfolios with impactful scientific outputs. Furthermore, we aim at strengthening UVT’s research excellency on the chosen topic by increasing the international visibility and reputation of the early-career and mid-career researchers. This will be reached through network enriching activities (e.g., expert meetings with top scientists on the topic) and through disseminating the scientific results to the international community (e.g., presentations at international conferences and publications in international journals).

We direct our effort towards a better understanding of the learning mechanisms through which people react less adaptively. The focus will lay on how neuroticism shapes evaluative conditioning or attribute conditioning, two classes of conditioning whose relationship with neuroticism is still unclear. Based on this research, we aim to gather more cues to explain why neuroticism is considered a risk factor for emotional problems.

Overall objective: The overall aim of this proposal is to enhance the scientific performance and research management capacity of the West University of Timisoara by twinning two highly performant teams with a host team with potential for scientific performance through joint research activities. This twinning will help raise the scientific profile of the involved researchers, and it will help the transfer of the acquired knowledge on research management into research policies at the institutional level.

Specific objectives:
• O1. Increasing the scientific profile of the early-stage researchers through joint research activities, advanced training, and short-term mobility.
• O2. Strengthening the UVT’s research excellence at the crossroad between personality psychology and experimental clinical psychology by increasing the international visibility and reputation of the early-career and mid-career researchers from this field.
• O3. Enhancing the scientific capacity of UVT by transforming the positive lessons learned through this partnership into institutional and departmental policy measures regarding research management.