Dr. Maria Suñol has been awarded a prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship under the 2025 call. She will develop her project BRAVA at the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona (UBneuro).
MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships are funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and are among the most competitive funding schemes in Europe. They support outstanding postdoctoral researchers through advanced training, mobility, and the development of innovative research projects.
About the researcher
Dr. Maria Suñol investigates how brain function and psychosocial traits shape chronic pain and emotional distress in youth. She completed her PhD in Medicine and Translational Research at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, where she identified early brain patterns associated with increased risk of obsessive-compulsive disorder in healthy children. Her findings suggested that early signs of mental health risk can be detected in the brain before clinical symptoms appear. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Pain and Emotion Neuroscience Laboratory (PENLab) at the University of Barcelona, led by Prof. Marina López-Solà. There, she combines brain imaging, psychological assessments, and machine learning to study why adolescents facing similar challenges have very different emotional experiences and mental health trajectories. She has conducted research at Harvard University (USA) and the University of Melbourne (Australia), integrating genetic, computational, and social psychology perspectives into her work. Dr. Suñol currently leads projects focused on empathy, self-compassion, and social support as protective mechanisms in mental health. Her long-term goal is to build a research program that identifies the biological and psychosocial mechanisms that foster resilience, compassion, and positive social development during adolescence. Ultimately, she aims to translate scientific discoveries into low-cost, accessible tools that help clinicians and schools detect early signs of vulnerability, personalize support, and promote youth well-being.
About the project
BRAVA (Brain Predictors of Resilience to Adversity in Adolescence) addresses one of the most critical questions in youth mental health: in the face of adversity, why do some adolescents experience lasting mental health problems while others are able to adapt and thrive? Chronic pain and adverse childhood experiences, such as bullying or physical abuse, are among the strongest risk factors for later mental health problems. Yet exposure alone does not determine outcomes. Many adolescents demonstrate resilience: the ability to maintain positive emotional and social functioning despite adversity. However, we currently lack reliable tools to predict who will follow this healthier trajectory. BRAVA seeks to fill this gap by developing brain-based tools that predict future resilience at the individual level. It will also identify when resilience begins to take shape during adolescence and how specific brain systems support it. The project will be developed at McGill University (Canada) and the University of Barcelona and is designed to contribute to a more preventive and strength-based approach to adolescent mental health. It focuses on early identification of vulnerability and protective mechanisms rather than reacting to disorders once they emerge. It also moves beyond a deficit-focused model to examine the strengths that support resilience during a critical window of brain and psychosocial development, when targeted intervention may have the greatest impact. In the long term, BRAVA’s findings could support the development of scalable screening tools and guide more tailored prevention strategies for adolescents at risk, contributing to a more precise and proactive approach to youth mental health.
The fellowship will allow Dr Suñol to consolidate her research profile, expand her methodological expertise, and further develop her scientific trajectory within UBneuro’s multidisciplinary environment.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships reinforce UBneuro’s participation in competitive European research programmes and contribute to strengthening the Institute’s scientific excellence and international visibility in neuroscience.
