Project description
Effect of mobility on the evolution of traditional hunter-gatherer societies
As the world's few remaining hunting and gathering societies interact more actively with their settled agricultural neighbours, they face major changes in their mobility and diet. The EU-funded MOBILE project will study these impacts on the biological diversity and evolution of hunter-gatherer communities in Indonesia. Researchers will combine data from different stages of the hunter-gatherers changing lifestyle with multi-species genomics, detailed simulations and remote sensing mobility data. The aim is to discover how social interactions maintain biological diversity in small, traditional societies over an intra-generational time scale. MOBILE will unify the genetic study of diversity, demography and natural selection at microgeographic scales, increasing understanding of traditional tropical forest societies and the role of mobility as a force in human evolution.
Objective
Human evolution has been punctuated by a handful of behavioural transitions driving greater social complexity – examples include the use of tools, language and farming. The shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture specifically involved a series of new co-evolutionary relationships with other species, including domesticates, diseases, and our own microbiome. Unusually, these transitions are also ongoing. Those few hunting and gathering groups that remain are near-universally experiencing radical changes in mobility and diet as they interact more intensely with their settled, agricultural neighbours. MOBILE will study the impacts of mobility on biological diversity and evolution in some of the last remaining hunter-gatherers in rapidly developing Southeast Asia, an under-studied cradle of human evolution. The project will generate spatially embedded social networks from Indonesian hunter-gatherer communities at various stages of the lifestyle transition. It will combine this data with multi-species genomics and detailed simulations to understand how social interactions maintain community biological diversity in small, traditional societies, and how movement redistributes variation allowing for adaptation over rapid, intra-generational time scales. MOBILE will unify the genetic study of diversity, demography and natural selection at microgeographic scales using simulations and novel remote sensing mobility data, enriching our understanding of tropical forest hunter-gatherers and of the role of mobility as a force in human evolution more broadly.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics
- social sciences sociology demography
- medical and health sciences health sciences nutrition
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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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.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
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.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG
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CB2 1TN CAMBRIDGE
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.