Global Evolutionary Biology Initiative

Recent years have seen the rise of research interest in evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy in regions out­side of the tra­di­tion­al strong­holds of the dis­cip­line (i.e., West­ern and North­ern Europe, USA, Canada, Aus­tralia, New Zea­l­and and Japan). In some non-tra­di­tion­al regions the fund­ing situ­ation for research in evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy has also been improv­ing, lead­ing to a nas­cent and grow­ing com­munity of research­ers. ESEB aims to foster the devel­op­ment and integ­ra­tion of loc­al evol­u­tion­ary research com­munit­ies and their links with the evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy com­munity in Europe. To help address these goals, the Glob­al Evol­u­tion­ary Bio­logy Ini­ti­at­ive (GEBI) provides fin­an­cial, organ­isa­tion­al and stra­tegic sup­port to foster the growth of loc­al evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy com­munit­ies in vari­ous parts of the world. In addi­tion the GEBI can also:

  • sup­port region­al train­ing activ­it­ies focused on evol­u­tion­ary biology
  • con­trib­ute to the organ­isa­tion of loc­al con­gresses, through e.g. the trans­fer of organ­iz­a­tion­al exper­i­ence, and help with acquir­ing invited speakers
  • facil­it­ate increased vis­ib­il­ity and glob­al con­nec­tions for region­al soci­et­ies, by provid­ing sup­port to hold sym­po­sia hos­ted in the spe­cif­ic region, includ­ing par­ti­cipants from the region as well as oth­er ESEB mem­ber countries
  • facil­it­ate net­work­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to strengthen inter­ac­tions across loc­al evol­u­tion societies
  • con­trib­ute to the organ­isa­tion of loc­al Uni­ver­sity edu­ca­tion cur­ricula, through e.g. the trans­fer of organ­isa­tion­al exper­i­ence, teach­ing con­tri­bu­tion, resource shar­ing (books, exper­i­ment­al kits and videos, etc)
  • sup­port oth­er requests from loc­al com­munit­ies com­pat­ible with this ini­ti­at­ive and its goals

GEBI wel­comes applic­a­tions to sup­port new pro­jects in line with its aims (examples include meet­ings to estab­lish or strengthen loc­al research­er net­works, con­duct­ing hands-on work­shops to dis­sem­in­ate new tools or meth­ods, or devel­op­ing cur­ricula for teach­ing). The cur­rent call will close on March 1st, 2026.

Call for proposals for GEBI Support 2026

The next call is now open and will close on March 1st, 2026. Details are avail­able at https://eseb.org/prizes-funding/global-evolutionary-biology-initiative/gebi-call-for-proposals/

Events supported by GEBI

Please see sum­mar­ies and fur­ther details of GEBI-sup­por­ted events at https://eseb.org/prizes-funding/global-evolutionary-biology-initiative/events-supported-by-gebi/, con­sider organ­iz­ing an event in 2026–2027, and apply for GEBI sup­port in the next call (details here: https://eseb.org/prizes-funding/global-evolutionary-biology-initiative/gebi-call-for-proposals/).

To facil­it­ate sup­port of loc­al meet­ings and teach­ing, the GEBI Com­mit­tee plans to build a data­base of ESEB mem­bers who are inter­ested in volun­teer­ing as speak­ers or tutors, pro bono. If you would con­sider join­ing GEBI-sup­por­ted activ­it­ies from time to time, we kindly ask you to fill in this short form. We will later be shar­ing this inform­a­tion (i.e., your insti­tu­tion­al email, research top­ics, and pre­ferred type of par­ti­cip­a­tion) with col­leagues that are organ­ising GEBI activ­it­ies, when needed. The inform­a­tion related to pop­u­lar sci­ence meet­ings will be passed on to ESE­B’s Out­reach Com­mit­tee, which coordin­ates this kind of activity.

https://forms.gle/wvbZ7ArD6gbr4Gib6

Access to ESEB membership and Society-run Journals

We encour­age organ­izers of GEBI-sup­por­ted events to share inform­a­tion about free or low-cost ESEB mem­ber­ship with par­ti­cipants of their events. ESEB mem­ber­ship includes access to the Journ­al of Evol­u­tion­ary Bio­logy, ESEB’s flag­ship journ­al. The co-owned soci­ety-journ­al Evol­u­tion Let­ters is online only and entirely open access.

Details for the mem­ber­ship sub­scrip­tion types can be found at https://eseb.org/society/eseb-membership/.

The Glob­al Evol­u­tion­ary Bio­logy Ini­ti­at­ive is man­aged by a com­mit­tee con­sist­ing of

Efe Sez­gin (İzmir İns­tit­ute of Tech­no­logy, TR; co-chair),
Nina Slet­vold (Uppsala Uni­ver­sity, Sweden; co-chair),
Leonardo Baci­ga­lupe (Uni­ver­sid­ad Aus­tral, Chile),
Han­nah Dug­dale (Uni­ver­sity of Gronin­gen, Neth­er­lands)
Simone Immler (Uni­ver­sity of East Anglia, Nor­wich, UK), and
Mehmet Somel (Middle East Tech­nic­al Uni­ver­sity, Ank­ara, Turkey).

Con­tact: ESEB Office – office@eseb.org