New ERC Starting Grant at the University of Bayreuth

Dr. Jos Kramer comes to the University of Bayreuth from ETH Zurich with a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Researchers of any nationality between two and seven years after their doctorate can apply for an ERC Starting Grant. The prerequisites for approval are a promising track record in the respective field of research and an outstanding research proposal.

Kramer will receive almost 1.5 million euros from the ERC over a period of five years for his research at the Chair of Evolutionary Animal Ecology under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sandra Steiger. She explains: “With Jos Kramer, we are gaining an outstanding young scientist whose dual expertise in the evolution of family life and evolutionary microbiology fits perfectly with our current research at the UBT. In his future work, he plans to combine microbiology, metagenomics and behavioural ecology in an innovative way to investigate the role of microorganisms in the evolution of family life and thus significantly expand our understanding of the emergence and stabilization of family structures and social life in the animal kingdom. At the University of Bayreuth, with our infrastructure and expertise in the model organism burying beetle, we offer him the ideal framework to develop and advance this promising research. Especially in the context of our ongoing DFG and DAAD projects related to the topic of family life, I am very much looking forward to the upcoming collaboration, the expected synergistic effects and the new insights that will emerge from it.”

“The University of Bayreuth offers me an inspiring research environment in which I can carry out my interdisciplinary project in cooperation with researchers from all disciplines relevant to me. The Chair of Evolutionary Animal Ecology investigates complementary questions to my research and I am particularly looking forward to the opportunities for collaboration and professional development that will arise from this,” says Kramer.

Kramer's EU ERC Starting Grant-funded research project focuses on the interplay between animal-microbe interactions and animal social behavior: How do animals influence or control their interactions with microbes through their social behavior and, conversely, how do interactions with microbes influence the social behavior of animals? In contrast to most studies dealing with this topic, Kramer's research uses an animal with more “primitive” social behavior to investigate the early stages of the evolution of animal social behavior, which are still poorly understood: burying beetles. These beetles of the genus Nicrophorus breed on the carcasses of small vertebrates and interact both with environmental microbes that are harmful to them, such as those that decompose the carcass and thus make it inedible for the beetle larvae, and with microbes that are beneficial to the beetles and fight the environmental microbes. For his research project, Kramer makes use of the fact that these animal-microbe interactions are influenced by the social behavior of the beetles: As part of their brood care, the parent animals fight harmful environmental microbes with antimicrobial substances and at the same time smear the carcass with beneficial microbes.