Integrating cooperation research across Europe (INCORE)

The objectives of this coordination action proposal are to draw up a strategic picture of research into cooperation across Europe, and to bring diverse disciplines together in this enterprise. We will analyse and integrate recent developments in cooperation research from a broad theoretical perspective, with a view to drawing up a roadmap for future European research in this critical area of human activity. The study of cooperation encompasses a very wide range of expertise, from economic theory, through the behavioural sciences, incorporating both animal and human studies. A deep understanding of human cooperation requires us to take a comprehensive view of the components of cooperation, and to foster a dialogue between groups who rarely communicate with each other about their different perspectives on this quintessentially human characteristic. In this Coordination Action we aim to build a network across Europe of groups who are studying the phenomenon of cooperation from many different perspectives, and with diverse areas of expertise. We are building this network on the backbone of the GEBACO (Genetic Basis of Cooperation) consortium, which is funded under FP6 ?NEST-STREP, and the TECT (Evolution of Trading, from Microbes to Man) consortium, which is funded under the ESF Interdisciplinary EUROCORES theme. We will foster collaborative meetings, exchanges of scientific staff, studentships aimed at fostering collaborative pursuits in diverse countries and disciplines. We will institute a web-enabled system of communication to keep alive the spirit of cooperation among the partners. Our goal is better to understand the origins of cooperative behaviour, and hence to improve significantly the possibility that cooperation may be fostered more effectively at all levels of society.