Objective
Social evolution is at the core of evolutionary biology, largely through the seminal work of WD Hamilton on inclusive fitness and the role of genetic relatedness in shaping social interactions and the social organisation of insect societies. Extensions to Hamilton’s original ideas have given a profound insight into the balance that exists between selfless cooperation and egoism within eusocial insect societies, spawning such concepts as worker policing and conflict resolution. These form one element of social evolution. The other element concerns the major evolutionary transition from solitary to truly social (eusocial), yet it has remained largely ignored. This is because the most widely studied social insects (ants, some bees, some vespid wasps) are obligately eusocial, unsuitable models to investigate the evolution of sociality. The sphecid or sand wasps provide an ideal group, although they have been largely neglected. Though most are solitary, a few are facultatively social and exhibit reproductive division of labour. Here I propose to investigate a facultatively social species which exhibits a division of labour in large (10-30 nestmates) groups. The study will integrate behavioural observations in the field to document patterns of nestmate activities with microsatellite genetic analysis of individuals to determine reproductive success. These analyses will tease apart the relative importance of relatedness versus ecological factors, size and age in determining the extent to which an individual cooperates for the good of the society and foregoes reproduction. Experimental manipulations in the field will be used to test explicit hypotheses over the role of relatedness in modulating cooperation. The neglected sphecid wasps offer novel insights into the role of relatedness in social interactions and caste differentiation that may challenge current views of social evolution. Genetic analyses (development of microsatellite markers) form the major training element.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion ethics ethical principles
- natural sciences biological sciences evolutionary biology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
BT7 1NN BELFAST
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.