AFFECT-EVO
@affect-evo.bsky.social
COST Action CA23106 - An evolutionary understanding of affective states across species. Project duration Nov 2024 to 2028. https://affect-evo.eu
Last week, Dr. Colline Poirier (WG3 Lead) represented AFFECT EVO at the #SciFAW100 Centenary Conference! 🎉 She presented on a central topic for our Action: validity criteria for indicators of individual affective states. #AFFECTEVO #COSTAction #SciFAW100 #AnimalWelfare
Day 2 in Prague and a wrap on the AFFECT-EVO WG3 meeting! We spent the final day in sub-groups, refining our methodological approaches and mapping out future collaborations. Highly productive session strengthening our scientific direction within the Action! #AFFECTEVO #COSTAction #AnimalWelfare
Thrilled to be in Prague for the first AFFECT-EVO WG3 in-person meeting (May 12–13, 2026)! We’re coming together to finalize our sub-group methodologies and strengthen collaborations. Ready for some productive discussions and meaningful progress! 🐾🧠 #AFFECTEVO #AnimalWelfare #AnimalEmotions
110+ researchers at our latest AFFECT-EVO joint meeting last month. WG1 and WG2 together in one room made for to discuss prorgess and ideas. More meetups coming soon! #AffectEvo #AnimalWelfare
🎓Training School: Phylogenetic Study of Affective States Across Species Join us in Thessaloniki, Greece (April 14-15) with experts Liz Paul, Mike Mendl, & László Garamszegi. 💰 16 fully-funded places available! Apply by Feb 23: 🔗 forms.office.com/e/U9jSVsH09S
📢 Grant opportunities! Our 2nd Grant Period is open. We offer funding opportunities for research visits, virtual collaborations, and conference grants. 🗓️ Deadline: 9 Jan 2026 Apply via e-COST: e-services.cost.eu
Explore behavioural and cognitive indicators of positive emotion from vertebrates to invertebrates. Participation is free, but registration is required. All early-career researchers and interested persons are invited. @affect-evo.bsky.social
On Tuesday, we hosted Dr Tom Smulders from @affect-evo.bsky.social for a discussion of the COST Action's progress and future plans for developing a framework to better understand affective states across species. Read more on our website (diverseintelligences.st-andrews.ac.uk/news)
Global Research Centre for Diverse Intelligences
diverseintelligences.st-andrews.ac.uk
Just returned from a @affect-evo.bsky.social in Latvia, where we discussed how to map out affective states across phylogeny. No easy feat! Very proud to co-lead the 'joy' subgroup & will try my best to represent captive wildlife. A super challenging yet exciting COST Action to be a part of!
Members of #AffectEvo Working Group 1 met in Riga last week for some very productive discussions on affective states across species.
Lots of good preparatory work done in Lisbon, looking forward to what is to come! #AffectEvo
AFFECT-EVO@affect-evo.bsky.social · last yr.And here we are - all basking in some Lisbon sunshine ☀️ #AffectEvo-Lisbon2025
Thank you to everyone who joined the first #AffectEvo meetup for three inspiring days of talks and discussions. #AffectEvo-Lisbon25
Final day of #AffectEvo-Lisbon25 begins with a recap of breakout room discussions. What are the benefits of taking a phylogenetic mapping approach to study affect? #AffectEvo
We wrap up the second day of #AffectEvo-Lisbon25 meetup with some more great discussions. #AffectEvo
We are back for our afternoon session at #AffectEvo-Lisbon25 ready to go back to discussions on dimensional approaches to affect and discreet emotions such as fear or disgust. #AffectEvo-Lisbon25
Day 2/3 of the first #AffectEvo MeetUp! Great discussions and plenaries. Excited for the outputs that will come out from this meetup. #AffectEvo-Lisbon25
Day 2 of our first meeting in Lisbon. This morning we divided into 3 groups to discuss the definitions of Valence and Fear as an exercise to help us think on the optimal ways to map affective states of animals. #AffectEvo #AffectEvo_Lisbon25
And the last keynote of the day was a tour de force by David Anderson (Caltech, USA) on neural dynamics and the encoding of emotion primitives.
Edmund Rolls (Warwick, UK), in his keynote, gave a comprehensive overview of emotion, motivation, reasoning, and how they are related in terms of brain structure-function.
Next up, we had Mike Mendl (Bristol, UK) giving us a brief tour of some emotion concepts and theories and their translatable characteristics. #AffectEvo #AffectEvo-Lisbon25
We are in the beautiful @gimmfoundation.bsky.social Oeiras campus for our first in-person meeting of #AffectEvo. #AffectEvo-Lisbon25 is the hashtag we are using.
We continue with Liz Paul (Bristol, UK) presenting on how to define affective terms for use in animals. #AffectEvo #AffectEvo-Lisbon25
Carrie Figdor (Iowa, USA) delivers the first keynote: “From Affect and Emotion Theories to a Phylogeny of Affect and Emotion”
Very excited to be in person for the first meeting of @affect-evo.bsky.social ! The program is sick and will be the place for fascinating discussion to refine our vision of animal affective state and its evolution across species.
Do give us a follow here and on LinkedIn to hear all about our latest updates!
Rui Oliveira, WG1 lead and the local organizer for the meeting, discusses the WG1 aims, meeting overlook and goals.
The first in person @affect-evo.bsky.social meeting is about to start with a mammoth program! Looking forward to 3 days of discussion on phylogeny, affect & welfare!
