The CMS, directed by Ian Cross, provides a home for research linking the field of music with psychology, acoustics, computer science and neuroscience. It is inherently cross-disciplinary, although the chief specialism of the centre is music cognition. With its dedicated studio facilities, the CMS supports technology-based graduate and staff research and teaching in music that requires technological resources. The other principal aim of the Centre is to provide a base for collaborative research with other departments in Cambridge and with those in outside institutions. The Centre was a partner in the organisation of the first conference on Language and Music as Cognitive Systems, held in Cambridge from 11 to 13 May 2007, played host to SysMus10, the third International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, in September 2010, and in 2010-11 co-organised (with Dr Fabia Franco, Middlesex University, and Dr Simone Falk, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) a series of seminars on music and language sponsored by the British Psychological Society.
