On the 18th of December 2012 Denise Manahan-Vaughan stepped down from as speaker of the Research Department of Neuroscience. During her term of office, the Research Department was founded and an excellent infrastructure of jointly used research facilities was established. Now as her term was over, Onur Güntürkün was elected anonymously. The elected Vice speakers are Stefan Herlitze and Ulf Eysel. The following term has its own challenges: Money is much more limited than it was before and major collaborative research grants await renewal. The picture shows Denise Manahan-Vaughan and Onur Güntürkün after the elections.