CNC-UC hosts European congress to debate social behavior

From June 9 to 12, the European Social Club will bring together in Coimbra around 120 researchers dedicated to the study of the neurobiology of social behavior - an area that studies the biological mechanisms, particularly in the brain, of social interactions between individuals.

Next week, between June 9 and 12, the European Social Club scientific event will take place in Coimbra, bringing together around 120 researchers dedicated to the study of the neurobiology of social behavior - an area that studies the biological mechanisms, particularly in the brain, of social interactions between individuals.

The initiative is organized by the Centre for Innovative Biomedicine and Biotechnology (CiBB), through the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra (CNC-UC), and will take place at the Convento São Francisco.

The European Social Club was born in 2021, with the mission of promoting communication and collaboration between European laboratories studying social behavior. Since then, the network has held regular virtual meetings to stimulate the sharing of findings and tools, and to foster collaborations between laboratories. The network's biggest activity is the face-to-face congress, which is taking place in Portugal this year (the first edition, in 2023, was held in Italy).

In this, its second edition, the European Social Club is opening its doors to the external community, welcoming not only representatives from the 50 or so scientific laboratories that make up the network, but also external participants from various countries. The network is dedicated to the neurobiology of social behavior, a field of study that brings together scientists from areas such as neuroscience, engineering, computer science or psychology who dedicate their work to understanding the evolution of social behavior and its mechanisms in different species.

The University of Coimbra's participation in this network is part of the ERA Chair DYNABrain, a project that has made it possible to create within CiBB and CNC-UC a research group in the area of systems neuroscience, applied to the study of social cognitive processes. As part of this project, which is led by CNC-UC/CiBB researcher Cristina Márquez, a PhD in Integrative Neuroscience was launched this year.

"We are extremely happy to be hosting this European scientific event and to be able to showcase the science that is done in Portugal to some of the best scientists in the world. Having scientific leaders of this caliber in Coimbra is a unique opportunity," says Cristina Márquez, co-organizer of the scientific meeting.

The 2025 edition of the European Social Club also has the support of Coimbra City Council, the Portuguese Neuroscience Society and the companies Open Ephys, Inscopix, Optogenix, 3Dneuro and Thorlabs.

The full program of the event is available here.

Divisão de Comunicação da Universidade de Coimbra w/ CNC-UC