Three researchers obtained PRIMA funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation this year at Unifr, all three at the Faculty of Arts. PRIMA supports women in the transition to the position of research professor.

Dr Petra Vetter, from the University of London, is a specialist in human visual perception. She will study how visual perception interacts with hearing.

Dr Susanne Schmetkamp, from the University of Basel, will study on the link between attention and aesthetics in the Philosophy Department. Attention problems are important in AHDH for instance (attention deficit disorder) as well as in burn-out syndromes. One objective of the research project is to determine whether aesthetic attention - that given to nature and art - is different from that captured by things like social media.

Finally, Dr Noëlle-Laetitia Perret, from the Department of History, focuses on the treatises of ambassadors at the end of the Middle Ages. The growing importance of ambassadors from the 13th to 16th centuries was a factor in the construction of modern states.

This is a great success for the three researchers, for the Faculty of Arts, and for Unifr in this very competitive program, since only 19 PRIMA scholarships were awarded this year for the whole Switzerland.

Picture: Susanne Schmetkamp (left) and Noelle-Laetita Perret.