BIOCONTRACT
Cooperation in mutualisms: contracts, markets, space, and dispersal (BIOCONTRACT)
(CNRS, FCT, FWF, NSF, OTKA)
In biology, a mutualism is an interaction between species that results in increased fitness for both partners. BIOCONTRACT applies contract theory from economics in order to investigate how the evolution of ‘natural contracts’ can distribute the benefits of mutualism among partners. The CRP draws and expands upon the economic theory of self-enforcing contracts to investigate how mutualisms persist in the face of potential exploitation by cheaters (organisms that reap the benefits of mutualism but do not reciprocate). BIOCONTRACT parameterizes the models that are developed by using data from several empirical systems. In so doing, it aims to describe general mechanisms that promote and maintain cooperation in diverse biological systems.
Project Leader: Prof. Naomi Pierce, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Principal Investigators:
• Dr. Ulf Dieckmann, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria
• Dr. Francisco Dionisio, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Prof. Drew Fudenberg, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
• Prof. Jerry Green, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
• Dr. Jérôme Orivel, Université Toulouse 3, France
• Dr. Istvan Scheuring, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary
Associated Partner:
• Dr. Douglas W. Yu, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
COCOR
Cooperation in corvids (COCOR)
(CNR, CNRS, FWF, CICYT, NWO)
COCOR uses the potential of the corvids to deepen our understanding of cooperation in group-living organisms. In order to tell unique ‘historical accidents’ apart from fundamental evolutionary principles, one needs extensive information on at least one more taxon that can rival the primates in its rich variation of social organisations, is easily accessible for study and has a proven potential for an experimental approach. COCOR strives to better understand the selective forces that resulted in the evolution of the mechanisms that play a role in cooperation and to unravel those mechanisms themselves at various levels.
Project Leader: Prof. Ronald Noë, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France
Principal Investigators:
• Dr. Vittorio Baglione, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
• Dr Thomas Bugnyar, University of Vienna, Austria
• Prof. Orazio Miglino (co-PI), University of Naples 'Frederico II', Italy
• Dr. Stefano Nolfi (co-PI), CNR, Italy
• Prof. Eric E. C. van Damme, Universiteit Tilburg, the Netherlands
Associated Partner:
• Dr. Nathan J. Emery, University of Cambridge, UK
Further information:
COCOR website
DynCoopNet
Dynamic Complexity of Cooperation-Based Self-Organizing Networks in the First Global Age (DynCoopNet)
(FCT, CICYT, NSF)
DynCoopNet ties together the self-organising commercial networks of the First Global Age (1400-1800). The CRP will produce new theoretical insights about cooperation in the context of the dynamic complex system of which these evolving networks were a part. IT will reveal the mechanisms of cooperation that permitted merchants and others to establish and sustain these often long-distance trading networks. The CRP will employ Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a data integration engine and visualisation tool to bring together layers of information necessary to understand the high levels of cooperation. The CRP will use spatial statistics and mathematical modeling to compensate for incomplete data due to the fragmentary survival of sources and to discern the possible impact of layers of interaction of which there are few surviving traces.
Project Leader: Dr. Ana Crespo Solana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain
Principal Investigators:
• Dr David Alonso Garcia, Complutense de Madrid, Spain
• Prof. Miguel Angel Bernabé Poveda, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
• Dr. Vicente Montojo Montojo, Archivo General de la Región de Murcia, Spain
• Prof. J. B. Owens, Idaho State University, Pocatello, USA
• Dr. Antoni Picazo Muntaner, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Arta, Spain
• Prof. Amélia Polónia Da Silva, University of Porto, Portugal
Associated Partners:
• Dr. Carlos Alvarez Nogal, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
• Prof. Hilario Casado Alonso, University of Valladolid, Spain
• Dr. T. Matthew Ciolek, the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
• Dr. Emery Coppola Jr., NOAH LLC, Lawrenceville, USA
• Prof. Juan Gelabert González, University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain
• Prof. Rila Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad, India
• Prof. Sara Nalle, the William Patterson University of New Jersey, Wayne, USA
• Prof. Tönu Puu, Umeå University, Sweden
• Prof. Michael Sonis, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
• Dr. Shahriar Yousefi, Centre for Advanced Research in Nature and Society, Gudme, Denmark
• Prof. May Yuan, University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA
• Prof. Benigna Zimba, Instituto Superior de Relações Internacionais – ISRI, Mozambique
Further information:
DynCoopNet website
SENSE
Sustaining eco-economic norms for a sustainable environment (SENSE)
(FWF, NSF, NWO)
SENSE combines perspectives from ecological and evolutionary theory, from economics and the theory of games, from the mathematics of dynamical systems to the theory of complex adaptive systems to provide new insights on the achievement of cooperation in addressing problems of the Global Commons. Central to the CRP will be the Tragedy of the Commons, in which individual benefit and group interest are in opposition. SENSE draws heavily on field work on cooperation and leadership in vertebrate groups; experimental work on the role of punishment in sustaining norms; theoretical work in game theory; and the mathematical modeling of the dynamics of complex adaptive systems.
Project Leader: Prof. Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, USA
Principal Investigators:
• Prof. Aart de Zeeuw, Tilburg University, the Netherlands
• Prof. Daniel Rubenstein, Princeton University, USA
• Prof. Karl Sigmund, University of Vienna, Austria
SOCCOP
The Social and Mental Dynamics of Cooperation (SOCCOP)
(CNR, CNRS, CICYT, NSF, OTKA)
SOCCOP will identify and explore, both theoretically and empirically, the fundamental structural, interactional and mental determinants of the evolution of cooperation among unrelated individuals in humans and other species. Our goal is to establish how far the traditional self-interest/reciprocal altruism view of cooperation can be extended and at what critical points are the model of social preferences and other-regarding behaviour required. Different approaches and disciplinary perspectives and different sub-issues will converge on this crucial objective.
Project Leader: Prof. Herbert Gintis, Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary
Principal Investigators:
• Prof. Samuel Bowles, Santa Fe Institute, USA
• Prof. Cristiano Castelfranchi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Roma, Italy
• Prof. Michel Kerszberg, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
• Prof. Arcadi Navarro, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
• Prof. Eörs Szathmary, Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary
Associated Partners:
• Prof. Ernst Fehr, University of Zürich, Switzerland
• Dr. Alex Kacelnik, University of Oxford, UK
• Prof. Ruth Mace, University College London, UK
• Dr. Robert Rowthorn, Cambridge University, UK
