Grants

Funded Projects

2026–2029 | sPRINg — Sensory evidence and PRIors in Nocebo Genesis

PRIN 2026 — Prot. 2026PYP5C3

Project PI: Mirta Fiorio 

CNR–ISTC Unit Leader: Laura Barca

Funding to CNR–ISTC Unit: €200k 

sPRINg investigates how sensory evidence and prior expectations interact in the generation of nocebo experiences. The CNR–ISTC unit focuses on how multisensory uncertainty and sensorimotor prediction errors influence bodily experience, using virtual reality, behavioural and psychophysiological measures.

2022–2025 | BoSE — The Body as a Source of Evidence: Characterizing interoceptive flexibility and its dysfunctions in Anorexia Nervosa.

PRIN 2022 — Prot. 2022MWZYKT
Principal Investigator
Total funding: €300k

BoSE investigated how the brain flexibly integrates interoceptive and contextual information to construct bodily experience, and how alterations in these processes may contribute to Anorexia Nervosa. The project combined behavioural, psychophysiological and computational approaches to characterize interoceptive processing and its relationship with psychopathology. 

2008–2012 | WoRHD — Written Language Processing in Hearing and Deaf

Marie Curie European Re-Integration Grant (ERG) — FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG
Principal Investigator
Total funding: €40k

WoRHD investigated written language processing in deaf and hearing readers, examining how auditory experience and preferred modes of communication influence lexical processing and visual word recognition. 

Participation in Funded Projects

2023–2025 | Brain-to-brain coupling: modeling and validating a theory of interactive inference in non-human primates

PRIN PNRR 2022 — Project P20224FESY
Research Team Member · PI: Giovanni Pezzulo

2020–2025 | ThinkAhead — Thinking Ahead: Human Planning from a Predictive Processing Perspective

ERC Horizon 2020 — Grant Agreement No. 820213
Key Personnel / Senior Researcher · PI: Giovanni Pezzulo

2017 | Abstract Concepts, Language, and Sociality

Sapienza University of Rome — Progetti di Ricerca Grandi, RG11715C7F1549F7
Research Team Member · PI: Anna M. Borghi

2011–2014 | GOAL-Leaders — Goal-directed, Adaptive Builder Robots

EU FP7 — Project No. 270108
Research Team Member · PI: Giovanni Pezzulo

Almost there!

2025 | ADAPT — From Predictive Inference to Adaptive Behavior: Unlocking Interoceptive Flexibility in Psychopathology

ERC Advanced Grant 2025
Principal Investigator
Step 1 evaluation: B (“high quality”) · Ranked 35–44%

2020 | MindTheBody — Interoceptive Flexibility and its Dysfunctions from a Predictive Processing Perspective

ERC Consolidator Grant 2020
Principal Investigator
Selected for Step 2 evaluation (Interview)