Dec­la­ra­tion of interest

I am a full-time pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lübeck, Ger­many. My salary is paid by the state of Schleswig-Hol­stein (Beamter, civ­il ser­vant) through the university.

Research fund­ing. Over the years, my research has been fund­ed pri­mar­i­ly by pub­lic agen­cies, includ­ing the Euro­pean Union and its var­i­ous fund­ing pro­grammes (such as the Euro­pean Research Coun­cil), the Deutsche Forschungs­ge­mein­schaft (DFG), the Fed­er­al Min­istry of Edu­ca­tion and Research (BMBF), and the State of Schleswig-Holstein.

Indus­try col­lab­o­ra­tions. I occa­sion­al­ly col­lab­o­rate with or advise part­ners from the hear­ing-aid and audio-tech­nol­o­gy indus­tries on sci­en­tif­ic or trans­la­tion­al projects (Widex / Sivan­tos Audi­ol­o­gy and its legal pre­de­ces­sors, since 2012; Cochlear Ltd., 2019–2022; Oti­con Foun­da­tion, 2015–2017). These activ­i­ties are non-exclu­sive, con­duct­ed under insti­tu­tion­al con­tracts, and have no bear­ing on the design, analy­sis, or pub­li­ca­tion of my aca­d­e­m­ic research. As of 2025, I hold no equi­ty or intel­lec­tu­al-prop­er­ty inter­ests in any com­mer­cial enter­prise relat­ed to my research.

Aca­d­e­m­ic ser­vice. I serve (or have served) on sci­en­tif­ic advi­so­ry boards and review pan­els for aca­d­e­m­ic and fund­ing organ­i­sa­tions, notably the Deutsche Forschungs­ge­mein­schaft (Study Sec­tion Neu­ro­science, 2024–2028) and the Max Planck Soci­ety (Chair­man of a Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­so­ry Board, 2023–2026). None of these roles involved finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion beyond stan­dard hon­o­raria or trav­el reimbursements.

Con­sult­ing. I have occa­sion­al­ly pro­vid­ed sci­en­tif­ic and sta­tis­ti­cal con­sult­ing ser­vices to phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and bio­med­ical com­pa­nies or their part­ners, at stan­dard aca­d­e­m­ic con­sult­ing rates.

Edi­to­r­i­al roles. As an edi­to­r­i­al board mem­ber, I have received finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion from the Soci­ety for Neu­ro­science (Jour­nal of Neu­ro­science, since 2019), from eLife Pub­li­ca­tions Ltd. (eLife, since 2019), and from Else­vi­er Ltd. (2015–2018).

To the best of my knowl­edge, no cur­rent or past engage­ment presents a con­flict that would influ­ence my sci­en­tif­ic judg­ment, teach­ing, or edi­to­r­i­al work.
This dec­la­ra­tion is pro­vid­ed in the inter­est of trans­paren­cy and will be updat­ed as needed.

J.O., Novem­ber 2025