On April 14–15, 2026, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) hosted 28 trainees from 15 countries for the first WG1 Training School. Following an initial speed-networking session, the program featured foundational lectures from Prof. Mike Mendl (University of Bristol, UK), who explored how affective states can be conceptualized and applied across highly diverse non-human animal species, and Prof. Laszlo Garamszegi (Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary), who explained how evolutionary relationships help us understand the development of complex behavioral and affective traits. Furthermore, representatives from WG1’s four main subgroups presented their progress in applying these evolutionary principles to specific states like Fear, Disgust, and Pain, as well as dimensional models.
Finally, Dr. Martin Kripl (University of Magdeburg, Germany) presented artificial intelligence tools for literature searching, which was followed by hands-on group workshops to test these new search strategies. In all, the training school successfully introduced a new cohort of researchers to AFFECT-EVO’s core methodologies and sparked great interest in joining our ongoing sub-working groups. The lecture recordings are now available via Teams/SharePoint here: Recordings of lectures, allowing you to watch the material at your leisure. For any questions regarding the content, please contact the presenters directly.
The day after the training school, representatives from all sub-working groups met with the WG1 leadership team to discuss progress in the different sub-working groups. They also received a remote presentation and demonstration of a relational database that is being developed to collect the information the different WG1 sub-working groups are going to collect from the literature, which will make it easier to conduct later phylogenetic analyses. Finally, a proposal was presented for a new sub-working group on more complex, social affective states. The proposal was approved, and members interested in joining this sub-working group should contact Martin Krippl (martin.krippl@ovgu.de) in the first instance.
