In December 2005, the BMBF (Ministry of Research, Education and Technology) funded Addiction Research Network ASAT (Speaker Prof. Wittchen) at the Institute of Clinical Psychology, jointly with the BMBF-endowed Chair of Addiction Research (Prof. Bühringer) and the Chair of General Psychology (Prof. Goschke), in close cooperation with the Department's Centre for Cognitive-Affective Neuroscience and colleagues from the Medical Faculty, joint forces to establish the Dresden Neuroimaging Centre.

The University and an international review board approved our research concept and programme in April 2006. The BMBF provided us with a generous research grant to acquire a 3T-MRI-system (Magnetom Trio A Tim system 3 T [Siemens] with whole body suite). The Centre will be operational in December 2006 and is located conveniently adjacent to the Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy on the Falkenbrunnen Campus. The Centre also hosts several research labs (i.e. MRI Addiction Lab, Mood and Anxiety Lab, Obesity Lab) with their staff.

Being devoted exclusively to research, the Centre and the research environment at the Dresden University offers unique technical and logistical capabilities for basic and applied clinical and non-clinical research. In line with current funding priorities, the Centre in its first funding period will be focussed on establishing the cognitive-affective neuroscience programme on addiction.