Global Training 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, North Amer­ica, Aus­tralia, New Zea­l­and and Japan). In some coun­tries of these new regions the fund­ing situ­ation for research in evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy has also been improv­ing, lead­ing to a nas­cent com­munity of research­ers who are begin­ning to organ­ize. The Glob­al Train­ing Ini­ti­at­ive (2013 – 2021) aimed to

  • pro­mote conceptually-driven research in evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy in those regions;
  • sup­port the sci­entif­ic devel­op­ment of young researchers;
  • foster the growth and integ­ra­tion of loc­al evol­u­tion­ary research com­munit­ies, and their links with the evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy com­munity in Europe.

To achieve these aims, the Ini­ti­at­ive co-fin­anced and sup­por­ted the organ­iz­a­tion and teach­ing of multi-day work­shops for young researches (gradu­ate stu­dents and postdocs) in selec­ted tar­get regions. The work­shops focused on devel­op­ment of prac­tic­al research skills, such as applic­a­tion of par­tic­u­lar approaches to research and ana­lys­is, design­ing ques­tion-driv­en research pro­ject, writ­ing papers and pro­pos­als, and present­ing sci­ence in Eng­lish. The work­shops were organ­ized in col­lab­or­a­tion with loc­al evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy com­munit­ies and involved a mix of loc­al and European faculty.

The Glob­al Train­ing Ini­ti­at­ive was man­aged by a com­mit­tee con­sist­ing of Leonardo Baci­ga­lupe (Uni­ver­sid­ad Aus­tral, Chile), Spen­cer Bar­rett (Uni­ver­sity of Toronto), Jac­ob Høglund (Uni­ver­sity of Uppsala) and Tadeusz Kawecki (Chair, Uni­ver­sity of Lausanne).

Past events

Course “VI Escuela Lat­inoamer­ic­ana de Evolu­ción (ELAEVO)”

Work­shop Web­site: http://evolucion.fcien.edu.uy/elaevo/ProximaEdicion.html
Place & Dates: Mon­tevid­eo, Uruquay, 6–18 Octo­ber 2019.
Coordin­at­ors: Enrique Lessa & Daniel Naya, Uni­ver­sid­ad de la República, Uruguay

Work­shop “Evol­u­tion­ary Gen­om­ics Train­ing for the Neo­trop­ics (EGTN 2019)“
Work­shop Web­site: Evol­u­tion­ary Gen­om­ics Train­ing on the Carib­bean Coast of Colom­bia – http://egt3c.uniandes.edu.co/
Twit­ter: #EGT3C_2019
Place & Dates: Cart­agena, Colom­bia, 14–20 Novem­ber 2019.
Organ­izers: Andrew J. Craw­ford & C. Daniel Cadena, Uni­ver­sid­ad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

Work­shop “Molecu­lar and Phen­o­typ­ic Evol­u­tion: the­or­et­ic­al and prac­tic­al approaches (MolPhE2018)“
Work­shop Web­site: https://molphe2018.wixsite.com/home
Place & Dates: Pet­nica Sci­ence Cen­ter, Ser­bia, 3–10 June 2018.
Organ­izers: Bil­jana Sto­jković, Uroš Savković and Mirko Đorđević

Work­shop on Eco­logy and Evol­u­tion of Plant Repro­duc­tion
Place & Dates: Field sta­tion of the Uni­ver­sid­ade Fed­er­al de Mato Grosso del Sul, Brazil, 26 April – 1 May 2017
Organ­izers: Nic­olay Cunha and Erich Fisc­her from the Gradu­ate Pro­gram in Eco­logy and Con­ser­va­tion of the Fed­er­al Uni­ver­sity of Mato Grosso del Sul in Campo Grande, Brazil.

Aykut Kence Evol­u­tion Con­fer­ence
Place & Dates: Middle-East­ern Tech­nic­al Uni­ver­sity (METU), Ank­ara, Tur­key, 18–19 Feb­ru­ary 2017
Organ­izers: METU Bio­logy and Genet­ics Stu­dent Society

Work­shop – Com­pu­ta­tion­al Eco­logy & Evol­u­tion­ary Bio­logy 2016 (CEEB2016)
Place & Dates: Sirince, Tur­key, 18–24 Septem­ber 2016
Organ­izers: Mehmet Somel (Middle East Tech­nic­al Uni­ver­sity, Ank­ara, Tur­key) and İsm­ail K. Sağlam (Hacette­pe Uni­ver­sity, Ank­ara, Tur­key) on behalf of the Eco­logy and Evol­u­tion­ary Bio­logy Soci­ety of Tur­key.
Vis­it the web­site: http://compecoevo2016.wixsite.com/home

Work­shop – Bio­lo­gic­al Adapt­a­tion: The­or­et­ic­al and Prac­tic­al Approaches
Place and Dates: Cal­fuco Mar­ine Labor­at­ory, Val­divia, Chile, 14–22 Novem­ber 2014
Organ­izers: Leonardo Baci­ga­lupe (Uni­ver­sid­ad Aus­tral de Chile, Val­divia, Chile), Marco Men­dez (Uni­ver­sid­ad de Chile, Chile & Chilean Evol­u­tion Soci­ety), and Tadeusz Kawecki (Uni­ver­sity of Lausanne, Switzer­land & Glob­al Train­ing Initiative).

Work­shop - Quant­it­at­ive Evol­u­tion­ary Bio­logy – Under­stand­ing Evol­u­tion with Mod­els and Gen­omes
Place & Dates: Sirince, Tur­key, 14–21 Septem­ber 2014
Organ­izers: Mur­at Tuğrul (IST, Klosterneuburg, Aus­tria), Hannes Svardal (Gregor Mendel Insti­tute, Vienna, Aus­tria), and Mehmet Somel (Middle East Tech­nic­al Uni­ver­sity, Ank­ara, Turkey)