Social interactions can improve support, resources and protection, but can also increase disease, stress and conflict. Consequently, for group-living species inc. humans, traits as diverse as personality, residence patterns, family-living and disease resistance all evolve in response to pros and cons of sociality. However, the direct links between sociality, health, fitness outcomes and ultimately natural selection are not well-known. KinSocieties reveals, for the first time, the benefits and costs of sociality accrued by individuals and whole societies in two complementary study species - humans and Asian elephants - facing current drastic changes in social structures due to break-down of kin networks. I use rare longitudinal data and two previously unstudied natural experiments to investigate effects of translocation to new social environments, addressed in 6 WPs: How have human social networks transformed with the modernisation of societies and associated with reproduction, cause of death and lifespan at different times? How does population structuring in humans affect reproduction, cause of death and lifespan? How does population structuring in Asian elephants affect reproduction, cause of death and lifespan? How is translocation to new area with/without kin or friends in humans related to subsequent integration, social networks, reproduction, lifespan and cause of death? How is translocation to new working units with or without kin, friends or social group in Asian elephants associated with stress, health, and friendship formation? Synthesize the costs & benefits of dynamic social structures in a modelling framework This research boldly combines approaches from social sciences, conservation, evolutionary demography and biology. The results have key theoretical and practical consequences, making also critical contributions to public health by revealing concrete costs and benefits tied to social relationships and their changes in the rapidly changing world of today.

Debates over the type and degree of integration pursued by European states currently dominate the European Union (EU). As the gulf between proponents and critics of the ‘Community method’ grows more acute, as the EU environment increasingly revolves around interstate relations, and as scenarios of EU ‘disintegration’ are entertained at various levels, attention has focused on historical precedents of intergovernmental models of cooperation in the hope of foreseeing the EU’s future development. Such debates have aroused notable interest in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the principal ‘other’ in postwar European politics. Yet very little is known about how and why EFTA developed in the way it did, its institutional and policy-making structure or the implications of these aspects for the present-day EU. The current state-of-the-art suffers two particular limitations: (i) it concentrates on very short time periods and (ii) it presents a highly state-centric realist account of EFTA’s history. This project fills this gap by undertaking a detailed historical study of EFTA’s development. It aims to (i) examine EFTA’s growth over a sustained period (1958–92) and (ii) account for this evolution as a product of interplay between actors at the national, transnational and institutional levels. Methodologically, the project deploys an innovative interdisciplinary approach that embeds historical research in the multi-level governance concept borrowed from political science. Empirically, the project draws on EFTA’s hitherto underexplored archives in Geneva and the national collections of its various member states. Historiographically, it promises new insights into EFTA history and reconnects the organisation’s and its members’ historical narrative to studies of European integration that generally focus more on the denser pre-history of the EU. In so doing, the project adds significantly to both research in the European Research Area and the priorities of Horizon 2020.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

For centuries, malaria has been a major global health concern, and despite intensive research efforts, malaria infection remains a key issue for many countries. Malaria parasites are also responsible for wildlife population declines and even extinction of many bird species. Despite being exposed to the same risk, there is a clear inter-individual variation in the susceptibility to malaria infection. Through MATHORMAL, I propose that such inter-individual variability in malaria susceptibility might be linked to both the prenatal programming of physiology by maternal hormonal effects and by initial differences in cellular ageing (i.e. assessed through telomere length). Higher exposure to certain maternal hormones can depress immunity, accelerate cellular ageing, and deregulate the protective microbiome of the uropygial gland linked to antimalarial defensive mechanisms. Thus, I hypothesize that increased prenatal exposure to certain maternal hormones could make the offspring more susceptible to malarial infections, potentially through its effects on telomeres and uropygial microbiome. To test this, I will first use artificially increased yolk hormone experiments (glucocorticoid, testosterone, and thyroid hormones) in a wild bird population and assess malaria infection intensity, immunity, telomere dynamics, and uropygial microbiome. Then, I will experimentally induce early-life telomere lengthening with TA-65 to assess the potential role that short telomeres play in malaria susceptibility. This project will advance our understanding of the inter-individual variation in malaria susceptibility, which will help to improve malaria prevention strategies. MATHORMAL will use an integrative approach at the crossroad of evolutionary ecology, ecophysiology, and parasitology and largely benefit from the dual knowledge transfer between myself (expertise in maternal hormonal effects and avian malaria) and my host group (expertise in maternal hormonal effects and telomere biology).

Systemic approaches to improve cardiometabolic and brain health during lifespan (SYS-LIFE) is an exciting new postdoctoral fellowship programme that seeks to deliver urgently-needed breakthroughs in the field of cardiometabolic and brain diseases (e.g. heart attacks, strokes, depression and diabetes), promote scientific renewal in this field and develop its future leaders of tomorrow. It is based at the University of Turku (UTU) in Finland and supported by partners in different sectors. UTU’s Collegia have a record for excellence in research and for developing their researchers for leadership roles. SYS-LIFE applies their bottom-up, 'Institute for Advanced Study' model to build on UTU’s outstanding expertise and unique facilities for cardiometabolic and brain health research. It will recruit 11 experienced postdoctoral researchers (ERs) in 2023 and 2024 (22 in total), each for 36 months, through an open, international, competitive, merit-based selection process dependent on external peer-review, in line with the European Charter and Code. Projects that are interdisciplinary, intersectoral, longitudinal or systemic are encouraged. At UTU, such approaches have resulted in major advances in cardiometabolic and brain health. SYS-LIFE offers • Scientific excellence: Fellows will be free to design and pursue novel, high-quality research projects that seek to improve health outcomes in this area, connecting and strengthening research and resources at UTU and beyond; • Career development: SYS-LIFE offers mentoring and a new range of options for non-tenured researchers to develop as future leaders, enabling them to move freely between sectors to acquire unique skills and experiences; • Innovation: SYS-LIFE (i) enables knowledge and technology to circulate freely at regional, national and international levels, (ii) connects intellectual excellence with the practical know-how and infrastructure needed to realise new concepts; (iii) offers dedicated Proof-of-Concept funds.