The network currently employs seven postdocs. No further vacancies are expected.

IMPORTANT: 

The network has been awarded a new 3-4 year network programme under EU's 5^th Framework programme. 

The title of this new network will be: 

Integrated Studies of the Economy of Insect Societies (INSECTS)

Participants of the new INSECTS network: 

1. Copenhagen DK: Jacobus J. Boomsma (coordinator)
2. Firenze IT: Stefano Turillazzi
3. Keele UK: Graeme R. Jones and E. David Morgan
4. Lausanne CH: Laurent Keller
5. Oulu FI: Pekka Pamilo
6. Regensburg DE: Jürgen Heinze
7. Sheffield UK: Francis L.W. Ratnieks
8. Zürich CH: Paul Schmid-Hempel

Subcontractors: 

1. Helsinki FI: Lotta Sundström
2. Leuven BE: Johan Billen
3. Würzburg DE: Bert Hölldobler

The commencement date of the INSECTS network will be 1 January 2001. Postdocs in the respective groups are currently under appointment.  

Network postdoc research will focus on: 

1. Copenhagen: Challenges to and synergisms in advanced societies involving symbionts
2. Firenze: Chemical information, social disruption and investment in defence
3. Keele: Information content of organic molecules and their significance for social cohesion
4. Lausanne: Synergistic effects of increasing colony size in advanced social systems
5. Oulu: The genetic underpinning of social organisation in advanced social systems
6. Regensburg: Synergistic effects of increasing colony size in primitive social systems
7. Sheffield: Meeting the organisational demands of advanced decentralised societies 
8. Zürich: Challenges to and synergisms in primitive social systems 

Summary research and training in the INSECTS network (2001-2004) 

The INSECTS network will carry out interdisciplinary research on insect societies using biological, chemical and mathematical methods. The aim of the network is to set new trends in the investigation of the economy and integration of insect societies in three areas. 1. CHALLENGES: How insect societies cope with challenges caused by factors such as internal conflict, competitors, parasites, waste. 2. SYNERGISMS: How synergistic advantages of social life arise in areas such as reliability, work organisation, farming, husbandry. 3. INFORMATION: Why insect societies maintain a diversity of communication systems; how these communication systems vary in societies of different size and ecology; how they promote social integration and reduce conflict.

The aims of INSECTS are inspired by parallels between insects and humans, which face similar problems as their societies increase in size, complexity and level of integration. INSECTS has eight Participants and three subcontractors. Collectively, the Participants have expertise in a wide range of disciplines (including behaviour, ecology, genetics, mathematical biology, morphology, organic chemistry, parasitology), technologies (DNA analysis, gas-chromatography, mass-spectrometry, microscopy, modelling hardware and software) and social insect model systems (ants, bees, wasps). Many of the techniques needed for INSECTS were developed in successful collaborations in the TMR network “Social Evolution”. In carrying out research, INSECTS will combine existing techniques in novel ways within partnerships of researchers with complementary expertise.

INSECTS aims to realise 15 research milestones by the mid term review and another 13 by its conclusion. INSECTS will reach out to academic disciplines outside the natural sciences in order to stimulate interdisciplinary research on social organisation. INSECTS also aims to work with eight industry partners, who share INSECTS’s interests in information transfer in complex systems, the signalling properties of chemical communication substances and thier application in biological control of harmful social insects, allergic reactions to social insect venoms, the use and conservation of social insects of commercial importance as pollinators of crops, and using insect societies in education and the media.

The INSECTS network will last four years and will aim to realise 290 months of postdoctoral employment (3-year to each of the eight Participant laboratories). INSECTS will offer general training via symposia and workshops. The symposia are of primary importance in the reporting and dissemination of reasearch results whereas the workshops will provide training in special skills and techniques. In addition, each postdoc will carry out at least four months of secondment, including visits to other network laboratories and one of the industry links. Specialised training in project management, newsletter editing, and the presentation of scientific results to audiences of differing backgrounds will also be provided by INSECTS. An outline for each postdoc’s training program will be made soon after appointment. The aim of the training program is to expose postdocs to 1-2 major biological or chemical subdisciplines and 1-2 groups of social insects that are not covered in their home laboratory.
 

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last updated: 06/12/2000