|
$$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
|
Dear ASAB members, Happy New Year! I hope you all had a chance to relax and recharge over the winter holidays. This month marks my first full year as Comms Officer—and what a year it has been! I am very much looking forward to what 2025 will bring. At the Winter Meeting, we bid farewell to a number of our outgoing council members, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work and dedication during their term: Professor Julia Myatt - Secretary of the Education Committee, Dr Ines Fürtbauer - Secretary of the Ethical Committee, Dr Chiara Benvenuto - Secretary of the Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility Committee, Dr Kate Lessells - Secretary of the Grants Committee, - Prof Christos Ioannou -Ordinary Council Member and Dr Friederike Hillemann -Ordinary Council Member (ECR Representative).
|
|
|
|
ASAB Council Members at the Winter Meeting 2024 |
|
|
|
We are also delighted to welcome the new council members who will be stepping into these important roles: Secretary of the Education Committee - Dr Lindsay Murray, Secretary of the Ethical Committee - Dr Augusto Vitale, Secretary of the Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility Committee - Dr Claudia Wascher, Secretary of the Grants Committee - Prof Christos Ioannou, Ordinary Council Member - Dr Andrew King, Ordinary Council Member (ECR Representative) - Dr James Bukie. In this newsletter you can find: ASAB Winter Meeting 2024 ASAB Medal Award Video & Poster Competition Winners Upcoming Meetings Animal Behaviour Journal News Grants News Education Committee News Messages from Outgoing Council Members
If there's anything that you'd like included in the Summer Newsletter, draft something up and send it along to webeditor@asab.org - we're always happy to share pieces from our members!
Warmest wishes,
Sophia Daoudi-Simison
ASAB Communications Officer
|
ASAB Winter Meeting 2024 Many thanks to the organising team of the ASAB Winter meeting held in Edinburgh last month. Claudia Wascher, Vivek Nityananda, Cédric Aumont, Chiara Benvenuto and Nicola Koyama curated an excellent, diverse and broad set of talks, plenaries and posters around the theme of Addressing biases in the field of animal behaviour. Sadly Professor Ben Sheldon was unable to attend to deliver the Tinbergen Lecture due to being involved in an accident with an e-scooter - we wish him a speedy recovery! However there were some very stimulating plenaries from Tatsuya Amano, and Antica Čulina and a public outreach talk by Malin Ah-King. Thanks to all of them for their contributions. Also, a huge thanks to all the speakers and poster presenters - without your exciting research, our meetings would be dull indeed.
|
|
|
|
Winter Meeting Organising Committee (from left to right): Dr Nicola Koyama, Dr Vivek Natyananda, Dr Claudia Wascher, Cédric Aumont and Dr Chiara Benvenuto |
|
|
|
If you missed the conference or want to re-watch a talk or catch one you missed, then it’s your lucky day. Videos of the conference are now up on YouTube for your perusal! Follow the links here for Day 1 & Day 2. ASAB AGM - you can access copies here of the AGM 2024 agenda and AGM 2023 minutes. Attention now moves to the 2025 Spring Meeting, to be held in Liverpool. Do submit abstracts, book travel and apply for grants, and I really hope that you can join us for what promises to be an exciting meeting complete with ECR workshop the day before. We look forward to welcoming you to Liverpool! Sophia Daoudi-Simison (ASAB Communications Officer)
|
ASAB Medal Award 2024Congratulations to Professor Rebecca Kilner FRS on being awarded the prestigious ASAB Medal, presented at the ASAB Winter Meeting 2024 by the ASAB President Professor Melissa Bateson. Rebecca Kilner is an evolutionary biologist studying how animal behaviour evolves and influences subsequent evolutionary change. Her research on birds and insects has revealed how family dynamics balance cooperation and conflict, such as how adults provision offspring while being vulnerable to manipulation, how siblings compete yet cooperate for resources, and how offspring can seek more food than parents can optimally provide. Her current work focuses on how behaviour drives evolutionary change by acting as an agent of natural selection and providing mechanisms for non-genetic inheritance.
|
|
|
|
Professor Melissa Bateson (left) presenting the ASAB Medal to Professor Rebecca Kilner FRS (right) |
|
|
Video & Poster Competition Winners!🏆 Congratulations to Snata Chakraborty for their video on Anchoring Bias in Web-shaking Behaviour of Spiders! You can watch the video on our YouTube channel here.
|
|
🏆 Congratulations also to our poster winners (from left to right): Sourabh Biswas, Louise Mackie & Joey Felsch.
|
Upcoming MeetingsGet out your calendars, it's time to plan for this year's ASAB meetings!ASAB Spring 2025Visit the conference website for information and registration When: 23rd-25th April 2025 Where: Liverpool John Moores University Conference attendance grants more than £500 (only Developing Country applicants): 1st December 2024 (see also childcare & accessibility grants). Others requiring an early decision may also apply in this round. Conference attendance grants up to £500: 1st February 2025 (see also childcare & accessibility grants) Abstracts submission deadline: 12th February 2025 Registration deadline: 1st April 2025 Behaviour/ASAB Summer Meeting 2025Visit the conference website for information and registration. When: 25th to 30th August 2025 Where: Kolkata, India All conference attendance grants deadlines are 1st April 2025 (see also childcare & accessibility grants): Conference attendance grants up to £800: only for applicants (all seniorities) who are based in India. Conference attendance grants up to £2500: only for applicants (all seniorities) who fall in the ‘Developing Country’ category – excluding India – as defined on the Behaviour 2025 website. Conference attendance grants up to £2000: only for applicants (all seniorities) who fall in the ‘Developed Nations’ category as defined on the Behaviour 2025 website. Abstracts submission deadline: 31st January 2025 Early bird price: Until 28th February 2025 Registration deadline: April 30th 2025 Late registration opens: May 1st 2025
|
Animal Behaviour Journal NewsWe are able to support so many animal behaviour endeavours (e.g., three conferences a year, a wide range of grant options and many educational activities) because of the funding that we receive from the publisher (Elsevier) of our society journal, Animal Behaviour. That funding will only
continue to exist if the journal remains a success. Please do therefore accept reviewer invitations whenever feasible and do send us your great work. Animal Behaviour publishes three types of original papers. (1) Primary research papers. These report new findings from field, laboratory, meta-analytical or theoretical studies. Work should test explicit hypotheses rather than being purely descriptive. These papers have a standard format of Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion as the main sections. (2) Methods papers. These describe (and, ideally, validate) a new approach to the study of animal behaviour. Such papers have an Abstract but are then more flexible in their structure. In general, they should have an Introduction (setting the scene for when and why a new method is needed). There should be a section describing the new method; ideally there would be a section where that new method is tested/validated. Then, there should be a Discussion that includes consideration of any validation results and suggestions about when the method would be useful. An example: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.10.013 (3) Dataset papers. These provide and describe a major behavioural data resource for wider use by other researchers. Such papers have an Abstract but are then more flexible in their structure. For instance (but this is not meant as a fixed template), there might be sections on ‘Data collection and processing’, ‘Description of the data set’ (i.e. its contents, meta-data information), ‘Initial analyses’ (i.e. initial analyses conducted by the authors with the data set, which includes some brief introduction and discussion of what was found, to put it into context) and ‘Suggestions for further questions’ for which the data set might be valuable. An example: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.02.008 Animal Behaviour also publishes: Reviews. These address fundamental issues relating to behaviour and provide new insights into the subject(s) they cover. Original interdisciplinary syntheses are especially welcome. A preliminary outline of up to 600 words should be submitted through the online portal. Commentaries. These provide an opportunity to raise issues of general importance to the study of behaviour, including statistical analysis, theory and ethics. Critiques of particular papers should be reserved for the Forum section. Forum. This section is for critiques of published papers, providing an opportunity for constructive exchanges on issues surrounding particular fields of behavioural study. Full details are available in the recently updated (or soon-to-be updated) Author Guidelines: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/animal-behaviour/publish/guide-for-authors As of January 2025, papers are published online only; they are assessed using double-anonymous peer review. And, there are paper prizes each year!
|
|
|
|
Neda Aleksiejūtė, a second year Animal Care undergraduate at the University of Padova, Italy, was awarded an ASAB Undergraduate Project Scholarship in February 2024 to investigate Numerical Discrimination Abilities in Pigs (Photos © Neda Aleksiejūtė). |
|
|
|
Prof. Christos Ioannou is our new Secretary of Grants Committee (C.C.Ioannou@bristol.ac.uk). Please contact Christos about grant matters rather than our previous grants secretary, Dr Kate Lessells. We owe huge thanks to Kate for all of her hard work on leading our grants schemes, especially in creating and refining the increased grants for researchers from Developing Countries to attend ASAB conferences. Christos would also like to thank Sophia Daoudi-Simison for her huge effort in revising the grants webpages since he took over. Details of how to apply for ASAB Research Grants, Undergraduate Scholarships, Conference Attendance, Childcare and Accessibility Grants, and Interdisciplinary Workshop Grants can be found at https://www.asab.org/grant-overview. The next grants application deadlines are: 1st February 2025 for: 1st April 2025 for all applications for: 1st June 2025 for:
|
📣 📣 Conference Attendance Grants for Behaviour 🐯 2025! 📣📣 We are pleased and honored to offer grants to ASAB members to attend ‘Behaviour 2025’ in Kolkata, India. For those who are not yet ASAB members, it may still be possible to apply for membership in order to apply for a grant (see below). The award provides a contribution towards the cost of registration, accommodation, as well as the cost of travel to and from the conference. In addition to Conference Attendance Grants, ASAB also gives Accessibility* and Childcare Grants to facilitate conference attendance. We allow applications for any combination of Accessibility, Childcare and Conference Attendance Grants for which the applicant is eligible. (*Please note that ‘Accessibility’ refers to individual needs related to heath, medical or disability issues - not to Developing nation status.) CATEGORIES OF APPLICANTS Please note: ASAB regrets that it cannot accept applications (i) from applicants who are based in the Americas (ie North America, Central America, South America, and associated islands) or (ii) from countries where UK government sanctions or other legal reasons would prevent payment of an award (see here for information on the countries affected). There are three categories of applicants: A) ‘INDIA’: i) For applicants (all seniorities) who are based in India ii) Maximum grant £800 iii) Applicants must be an ASAB member by 1st April 2025, and if not yet a member, must have initiated the process of becoming a member with the ASAB Membership Secretary by 1st March 2025 B) ‘DEVELOPING NATIONS (EXCLUDING INDIA)’: i) For applicants (all seniorities) who fall in the ‘Developing Nations’ category as defined on the Behaviour 2025 website, excuding those based in India ii) Maximum grant £2500 iii) Applicants must be an ASAB member by 1st April 2025, and if not yet a member, must have initiated the process of becoming a member with the ASAB Membership Secretary by 1st March 2025 C) ‘DEVELOPED COUNTRIES’: i) For applicants (all seniorities) who fall in the ‘Developed Nations’ category as defined on the Behaviour 2025 website (“Here, the list of Developed countries are given”) ii) maximum grant £2000 iii) Applicants must: EITHER be without a PhD (or equivalent) or less than five years post-doc (i.e. from the date of their final PhD examination to 1st April 2025) and be an ASAB member by 1st April 2025, and if not yet a member, have initiated the process of becoming a member with the ASAB Membership Secretary by 1st March 2025; OR if more than five years post-doc (i.e. from the date of their final PhD examination to 1st April 2025), have been a member of ASAB continuously from 1st April 2024 Please see here for further information. Grants awarded in the June 2024 application roundResearch Grants (June round): 8 applications were received and 3 grants were awarded: Charlotte Grund (University of St Andrews, UK). Mountain gorilla sexual solicitations: sex differences in communication styles. £ 8,259.49 Stephen Montgomery (University of Bristol, UK). Butterfly sleep. £ 9,960.47 Carolin Nieder (University of Auckland, New Zealand). Shark vocalisations. £ 3,074
Total spend on research Grants: £ 21,293.96 Grants awarded in the August and October 2024 application roundsResearch Grants (only October round): 8 eligible applications were received, and 3 were awarded: Eleanor Bath (University of Oxford,
UK). Aggression across a latitudinal cline in Drosophila pseudoobscura. £8,660.45 Océane Liehrmann (University of Turku,
UK). Positive Cognition: Integrating Cognitive Science and AI to Study Farm
Animal Brain Activity during Positive Interactions with Humans. £10,000.00 Maria Cristina Lorenzi (Sorbonne Paris Nord Université, France). An annelid worm behaves differently in monogamy or promiscuity: is this variation modulated by oxytocin? £ 8,550.00
Total spend on research Grants: £27,210.45 Undergraduate Project Scholarships (only October round): There were no applications in this round. Inter-disciplinary Workshop Grants (only October round): Two eligible applications were received, both from the UK, and one awarded. (Only one Inter-disciplinary Workshop is awarded each year): HaDi MaBouDi (University of Sheffield, UK), Mikko Juusola and Andrew Barron. “NIBAI-2025: Nature of Intelligence, Bridging Animal and Artificial Intelligence” £ 5,000.00
Conference Attendance Grants (August and October 2024): 37 applications were received for the ASAB Winter 2024 Meeting in Edinburgh, UK, 2 of which were not eligible. The remaining 35 applicants were awarded. The total amount originally awarded were £22,376.17. Childcare Grants (August and October 2024 rounds): One application was received in the October round and awarded was £404.90. Accessibility Grants (August and October 2024 rounds): One application was received in the October round and awarded £433.50. ASAB Interdisciplinary Workshop“NIBAI-2025: Nature of Intelligence, Bridging Animal and Artificial Intelligence”This ASAB workshop (to be held at the University of Shefield) aims to bring experts in animal behaviour and neuroscience, AI, robotics, cognitive science and related fields, to enhance our understanding of the mexhanisms behind intelligent behaviour - both natural and artifical. Those interested in attending should contact HaDi MaBouDi: h.maboudi@sheffield.ac.uk for further details.
|
Education Committee News January 2025Firstly, we would like to thank Professor Julia Myatt for all her had work and support as the ASAB Education Secretary over the past three years. We’d like to wish her the best of luck and as Julia is remaining on the committee we look forward to seeing how she is getting on. Secondly, welcome to Dr Lindsay Murray as our new Secretary. Lindsay is an Associate Professor of Animal Psychology at the University of Chester. Her research interests are predominantly in primatology, particularly personality, laterality, social behaviour and self-recognition, but also extend to wider aspects of animal behaviour, including elephant grief, human impact and ecotourism involving brown bears. She is on the Council of the Primate Society of Great Britain, where she is the Education Officer and Editor of Primate Eye. We have a game! ‘Adventures in Animal Behaviour’ please play and share – you can test your biological knowledge and find out about being an animal behaviour scientist. It’s on our website, so click here for fun. A massive thank you to: Professor Gillian Forrester, Dr Elisa Frasnelli, Dr James Bukie, Dr Vivek Nityananda and Professor Alan McElligott for being such good sports. Also a big well done to Dr Dan Cooper from www.testtuberevise.com Dan developed the game after winning one of the ASAB Education Committee’s Public Engagement grants.
|
|
We now have a ASAB Student Sub Committee the inaugural meeting was held in the summer with 10 enthusiastic members. We look forward to working with them and seeing how this subcommittee progresses.
|
|
Forty students from Edinburgh College and The Royal High School Edinburgh came to the ASAB Winter Conference. They were invited to the plenary talk being given by Malin Ah-King, from Stockholm University/Örebro University, Sweden. Malin Ah-King is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies, she is an evolutionary biologist (PhD) and gender researcher focusing on gender/queer perspectives on biology and feminist science studies of contemporary sexual selection research. The students enthusiastically took part in a Q&A session with Malin, as well as a careers talk and Poster Judging.
|
|
Bowness & Windermere Community Care Trust have been working with around 20 young people on a 6-week workshop at the Phoenix centre youth club. The sessions involved the local vet and town steward, who talked about the different wildlife in Elleray Woods and why they behave the way they do in their woodland community. The participants each choose an animal and with the help of an artist, created comics highlighting the animals behaviour.
|
Messages from Outgoing Members of ASAB Council“As I conclude my term as Secretary of the ASAB Ethical Committee, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the vital work of ensuring ethical oversight in animal behaviour research. I would like to thank the members of the committee for their support and positive contribution to ASAB and Animal Behaviour. I would also like to thank the editors of Animal Behaviour and Justine Fox and Angela Turner in the Editorial Office for their support and assistance throughout the past few years. Furthermore, I would like to extend a welcome to Augusto Vitale as the incoming ethics secretary. Finally, I would like to thank the members of ASAB Council that I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with over the past few years.” Dr Ines Fürtbauer (Outgoing Secretray of the Ethics Committee) “I have been involved in the ASAB Council for 3 years as an Ordinary Member and then I have been Secretary for the Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity & Accessibility (EDIA) Commitee for 3 more years. During this time, I had the opportunity to see the amazing work done by the Council and to get a better understanding of how the Association works and the responsibilities, passion and hard work of its members. I am grateful to all the Council members I interacted with across these years, for their guidance, support, and friendship. I feel so lucky I had the chance to work with all of them. Moreover, I have truly enjoyed being part of the EDIA committee, since we first requested to have an official role in the Council. I was honoured to serve as Secretary: I have learned a lot in the process, I often wish I had done more, but I am proud of what we have accomplished, and I am looking forward to more successes. I am indebted to all members of the EDIA committee for their engagement, support, trust, and patience with me, and to Charlotte Evans, ASAB Education Officer for her help, efficiency and enthusiasm. I am very happy to pass the role to Dr Claudia Wascher, who will be an incredible asset for the committee as our new Secretary. A suggestion to all ASAB members: get involved in our committees and Council, so you will be able to participate in first person to our animal behaviour community!” Dr Chiara Benvenuto (Outgoing Secretary of the Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility Committee) My three-year term as an Ordinary Member of Council and Early Career Representative for ASAB has come to an end, and I’d like to take the opportunity to express my thanks to everyone who made this journey so rewarding, especially for fostering such a welcoming atmosphere! It’s been inspiring to be part of a group that works so effectively; ASAB Council members are dedicated to creating a supportive environment for animal behaviour researchers at all career stages, while strengthening the visibility and impact of the field. Although my term on Council has ended, I’ll remain actively engaged with ASAB and encourage you to get involved in the many opportunities ASAB offers to connect, learn, and shape the future of the society, including: Attend events and participate in ASAB’s conferences (the Spring Meetings are specifically aimed at ECRs and combine conference and training workshops) Apply for ASAB grants to support your research or attend conferences, Explore the carefully compiled teaching resources Submit your work to Animal Behaviour, our society journal Nominate and apply for ASAB’s prizes and awards recognising members’ contributions to the study of animal behaviour.
Thanks! Dr Friederike Hillemann (Outgoing Ordinary Member - ECR Representative)
|
|
|
|
