Radboud University receives NWO grant for research

The board of NWO’s Applied and Technical Sciences domain awarded funding to a project by John van Opstal of Radboud University. Within the OtoControl 2.0 project, algorithms are being developed to produce better cochlear implants.

Within NWO’s Open Technology Program, 5.4 million euros will be made available for seven different research projects, with an additional 1.4 million euros in investments from companies and other organizations involved. Within Radboud University, one project has been designated, by John van Opstal, affiliated with the Donders Center for Neuroscience.

The Open Technology Program provides funding for excellent research, with a view to potential application of the results. The program gives companies and other organizations a low-threshold way to join scientific research that should lead to applicable knowledge.

OtoControl 2.0

The next step towards optimal personalised fitting of cochlear implants

A cochlear implant (CI) enables the deaf to hear and understand speech, but variability in performance among users is large and unexplained. Clinical fitting of the device still relies on standardised ‘one-size-fits-all’ procedures. However, only a precise personalised characterisation of the user’s auditory system and associated CI fitting may help solving this problem.

In this project, the researchers are developing and testing methods to analyse large amounts of objective psychophysical and electrophysiological data from many CI users across different clinical centres. We develop novel machine-learning algorithms and a smart-phone application, yielding objective data-based fitting advice that optimises auditory performance of each user.