Project description
How ecological interactions influence microbial community assembly
A key challenge in ecology is understanding how diverse microbial communities assemble and persist. Current predictive models rely on simplified traits, such as maximum growth rate, and fail to capture the dynamic interactions between organisms and their environment. Recent advances now enable precise measurement of microbial growth dynamics, supporting more accurate predictions of community behaviour. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ECOSHAPE project investigates how the structure of ecological interactions drives microbial community assembly. It aims to establish growth rate density dependence as a fundamental ecological trait by measuring microbial isolates in monocultures and pairwise co-cultures under diverse environmental conditions, generating datasets of multi-species community assembly, and developing predictive models with applications in medicine and industry.
Objective
A fundamental challenge in ecology is to understand and predict how diverse microbial communities assemble and persist, a question also relevant for medicine, biotechnology, and ecosystem management. While decades of theory have explored coexistence, predictive models often rely on overly simplified traits, such as maximum growth rate, that fail to capture the dynamic feedback between organisms and their environment. Direct experimental evidence linking functional traits to community-level outcomes remains scarce. This project aims to elucidate how the shape of ecological interactions drives microbial community assembly by combining high-throughput experiments and theoretical models. Recent experimental advances have enabled the precise measurement of growth dynamics in diverse synthetic communities, while theoretical models, inspired by statistical physics, can disentangle interactions and predict community dynamics. I propose to elevate the functional form of growth rate density-dependence to a fundamental ecological trait that integrates resource consumption, inhibition, and facilitation into a single measurable curve. I will use high-throughput techniques to measure the shape of density-dependence profiles for a broad library of microbial isolates, both in monoculture and in pairwise co-cultures under diverse environmental conditions. I will then experimentally assemble multi-species communities and track their composition over time to generate a systematic dataset of assembly outcomes. I will develop a novel theoretical model that incorporates the empirically measured profiles to predict these experimental outcomes. Utilizing statistical physics tools, I will generate predictions capable of interpreting the experiments and scale these insights to complex ecosystems. Beyond developing a new predictive framework for community ecology, this project has the potential to indicate new strategies for engineering microbial consortia relevant for medicine and industry.
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.
You need to log in or register to use this function
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.
-
HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
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.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75007 Paris
France
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.