Special Topic Networks

Small sym­po­sia, work­shops and courses in vari­ous formats can per­form func­tions com­ple­ment­ary to those of the ESEB Con­gresses, allow­ing more focused inter­ac­tions with­in spe­cial­ist areas, for­ging new links between pre­vi­ously sep­ar­ate areas or fos­ter­ing inter­dis­cip­lin­ary and innov­at­ive ideas that merge spe­cial­ized fields. One-off events can be valu­able but the returns for con­nec­ted series of events can be even great­er. There­fore, ESEB invites pro­pos­als for Spe­cial Top­ic Net­works (STNs) that will sup­port dynam­ic and flex­ible series of small meet­ings and/or oth­er net­work­ing oppor­tun­it­ies in focused and cur­rently act­ive research areas.

Each new STN will be fun­ded for up to 6 years (sub­ject to review after 2 and 4 years of oper­a­tion) with up to 10,000 Euros for each 2‑year fund­ing peri­od. 12 STNs have been ini­ti­ated since the start of the ini­ti­at­ive (see https://eseb.org/prizes-funding/special-topic-networks/), and fur­ther STNs will be ini­ti­ated every oth­er year. The format of these STNs is up to their organ­isers and innov­at­ive ideas are encour­aged. All fields of evol­u­tion­ary bio­logy are eligible.

Next Call for Applications

The next dead­line will be announced in autumn 2024.

Funded Networks

• ADAPT – Ancient DNA stud­ies of Adapt­ive Pro­cesses through Time (2017–2023)
• Eco­lo­gic­al gen­om­ics of coe­volu­tion­ary inter­ac­tions (star­ted in 2017)
• European Dro­so­phila Pop­u­la­tion Gen­om­ics Net­work (Dros­EU) (2016–2023)
• Intern­al Con­flicts and Organis­mal Adapt­a­tion (star­ted in 2023)
• IOS – Integ­ra­tion of spe­ci­ation research (star­ted in 2021)
• Joint evol­u­tion of dis­pers­al and mat­ing sys­tems (star­ted in 2023)
• Link­ing loc­al adapt­a­tion with the evol­u­tion of sex dif­fer­ences (2016–2023)
• Syn­thes­iz­ing Micro- and Marco-Evol­u­tion­ary Pro­cesses Shap­ing Proka­ryot­ic Gen­omes (star­ted in 2019)
• The Evol­u­tion­ary Eco­logy of Thermal Fer­til­ity Lim­it (star­ted in 2019)
• TIBBE – The Integ­rat­ive Bio­logy of Brain Evol­u­tion (star­ted in 2023)
• The Net­work of Socially Trans­ferred Mater­i­als (star­ted in 2023)
• WAME – Wild Anim­al Micro­bi­o­me Evol­u­tion (star­ted in 2021)

The STN Com­mit­tee,
Franjo Weiss­ing (Chair), Troy Day, Ellen Decaesteck­er, Simone Immler, and Yan­nis Michalakis