What makes beings individual, and how do they influence their environment? The Focus Area 'InChangE – Individualisation in Changing Environments' at Bielefeld University is dedicated to examining these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective. Researchers in biology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines are integrating data and theory to understand the causes and consequences of individual differences. Their goal is to develop a new science of individualisation—one that encompasses both humans and animals.
Dr Diddahally R. Govindaraju is a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Aging at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and a Research Associate in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he teaches 'Evolutionary Processes in Epidemiology and Precision Medicine'. The course bridges evolutionary genetics, epidemiology and key elements of precision medicine.
Dr Govindaraju's research spans evolutionary genetics of plants and humans, with a sustained focus on understanding how evolutionary principles illuminate the origins and diversity of health and disease. During his JICE Visiting Fellowship, he will explore niche construction in evolution and human health, while developing a framework for individual-level thinking in precision medicine. His work integrates evolutionary principles with genotype–phenotype mapping at the individual level to illustrate how genetic architectures are modulated in a context-dependent manner within populations. This approach aims to advance the predictive, preventive and therapeutic aspects of precision medicine.
The research agenda of psychologist Eric Grunenberg research agenda involves integrating theoretical advances from social and personality psychology with novel machine learning approaches to predict, explain and implement changes in social decision-making. During his ECR Fellowship, he will conclude a research project investigating behavioural factors that influence how humans choose their romantic partners in large-scale speed dating scenarios. The study combines distal self-report data and observable behaviour to clarify when unique partner choices become predictable. Beyond this, it will provide a methodological showcase of a novel computational modelling approach for uncovering cues that make certain individuals “click” with each other. By identifying the behaviours and conditions under which individual partner choices arise, the findings will advance our understanding of how and why individuals select their social relationships.
'Under stress, the buffer system is overloaded'
Hidden genetic variations: JICE member Joachim Kurtz talks about a special mechanism of evolution
Since the discoveries made by the British naturalist Charles Darwin, one thing is clear: inherited differences between individuals are a decisive condition for evolutionary adaptation in organisms. Via the formation of proteins, they lead to different characteristics. In evolutionary biology these visible differences are called 'phenotypes'. What Darwin could not know, however, is that there are also 'hidden' (cryptic) genetic variations. A team led by Dr Rascha Sayed and Prof Dr Joachim Kurtz from the Institute of Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Münster has now found evidence of such a variation and has identified its genetic basis. In an interview with the university newspaper wissen|leben, JICE member Joachim Kurtz provides details of this mechanism.
Sayed R, Şahin Ö, Errbii M, R R, Peuß R, Prüser T, Schrader L, Schulz NKW, Kurtz J (2025): HSP90 as an evolutionary capacitor drives adaptive eye size reduction via atonal. Nature Communications 16, 9277. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65027-0
During her ECR Fellowship, ecotoxologist Dr Maria Luigia Vommaro will conduct a research project entitled ’Individualisation in Ecotoxicology’, which explores how intrinsic individual traits mediate ecological responses to environmental stressors such as pesticides and heatwaves. She will use the two established invertebrate models Tenebrio molitor and Tribolium castaneum to gain insights into the mechanisms determining insect resilience to such environmental conditions at an individual level. By integrating biological, toxicological, statistical, and ecological perspectives, she seeks to achieve three main objectives: (1) describing individual differences in stress responses, (2) explaining how these differences arise through physiological and immunological mechanisms and (3) predicting variation in ecological resilience using trait-based modeling.
New approach to studying individual differences in social behaviour
Interdisciplinary publication by JICE members in Nature Human Behaviour
Why do individuals – both humans and animals – differ so greatly in how they interact with others? How do social experiences shape these differences? And what consequences do variations in social behaviour have for individuals and communities? An interdisciplinary research team of JICE members led by psychologists and Dr Niclas Kuper and Prof Dr Mitja Back from the University of Münster has presented a new framework in the journal Nature Human Behaviour for systematically studying the diversity of individual social behaviour. The so-called “Linked-Lives approach” integrates insights from psychology, biology, sociology, economics, and philosophy. Its goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of individual differences in social behaviour – across disciplinary boundaries, species, and contexts.
Kuper N, Breitmoser Y, Caspers BA, Dammhahn M, Gadau J, Kaiser MI, Kandler C, Kroh M, Krüger O, Kurtz J, Lemola S, Rauthmann JF, Richter SH, Voelcker-Rehage C, Back MD (2025): An interdisciplinary linked-lives approach to individual differences in social behaviour. Nature Human Behaviour 9, 2012–2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-025-02301-7
The new Topical Programme at the University of Münster entitled “Animal Personality Meets Personality Psychology” got going at the beginning of October with a kick-off workshop. The aim of the project is to build bridges not only between these two fields of research – animal personality and personality psychology – but also to related disciplines. In addition to working groups from the fields of Biology and Psychology, researchers are also involved from the Faculty of Medicine and the Departments of Psychology, Sports Science and History/Philosophy. The two spokespersons for the project, Prof. Melanie Dammhahn (Biology) and Prof. Mitja Back (Psychology), provide insights into the research being planned within the JICE.
The research of behavioural ecologist Dr Jingyu Qiu focuses on individual differences in life histories as well as behavioural and physiological traits and how these interact with the environment. For her doctorate, she studied wild Karoo bush rats (Otomys unisulcatus), revealing that ecological constraints during early life stages can lead to divergence in life histories and have long-term consequences in adulthood. Building on this foundation, she will develop a research project during her ECR Fellowship to investigate how individuals cope with human-induced information pressure in the context of urbanisation. This will address three key questions: (1) whether personality predicts individual performance under information pressure, (2) how personality interacts with different types of information pressure and (3) how urbanisation influences information-processing ability at the population level in the wild.
Interdisciplinary research on individual differences
Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of NRW, the collaborative research association ‘Individualisation in Changing Environments’ (InChangE) brings together natural sciences, social sciences and humanities to explore the complex interactions between individuals and their environment. In an interview, the directors Prof Dr Barbara Caspers (Bielefeld University) and Prof Dr Jürgen Gadau (University of Münster) talk about their experiences and findings within InChangE.
People who regularly consume caffeine are usually in a better mood after a cup of coffee or another caffeinated drink—an effect that is much more pronounced in the morning than later in the day. This finding comes from a new study by a team including JICE member Prof Dr Sakari Lemola and other researchers at Bielefeld University and the University of Warwick, published in the journal Scientific Reports. Participants reported feeling significantly happier and more enthusiastic on those mornings compared with other days at the same hour when they had not yet had coffee.
Hachenberger J, Li YM, Realo A, Lemola S (2025): The association of caffeine consumption with positive affect but not with negative affect changes across the day. Scientific Reports 15, 28536. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-14317-0
A research team led by biologist Rebecca Chen from Bielefeld University has investigated how certain genetic changes influence the reproductive success of male black grouse. The key finding: it is not outwardly visible characteristics such as colourful plumage that determine mating success, but behaviour. Males with a high number of deleterious mutations were less likely to be found at mating grounds (leks), thus missing crucial opportunities for reproduction. The study has now been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Chen R, Soulsbury C, Hench K, van Oers K, Hoffman J (2025): Predicted deleterious mutations reveal the genomic mechanisms underlying fitness variation in a lekking bird. Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02802-8
The primary research interest of behavioural ecologist Dr Kai-Philipp Gladow lies in understanding how species interactions promote or hinder coexistence. For his doctorate, he examined how various birds of prey, namely eagle owls, goshawks, common buzzards and red kites, influence each other’s behaviour and breeding performance through intraguild predation, i.e. the killing of individuals belonging to a competing species with similar ecological niches. During his ECR Fellowship, he will expand upon this work by incorporating individual-level behavioural variation into models of intraguild predator systems – in this way, he will integrate theoretical approaches and advance ecological models of species coexistence. This will address a critical gap in classical coexistence theory, which often overlooks individualisation as a key driver of interaction dynamics. The work has direct implications for biodiversity conservation, helping to predict how ecological communities might respond to environmental change and increasing anthropogenic pressures.
Bernhard Rensch Lecture by Hanna Kokko on 10 July 2025
Natural selection should favor organisms with longer lifespans—or so one might think. In reality, there is a diversity of lifespans in nature. Using various, sometimes extreme, examples from the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Prof. Dr. Hanna Kokko from the University of Mainz will demonstrate at this year's Bernhard Rensch Lecture of the Department of Biology at the University of Münster that even a short lifespan can represent an evolutionary advantage.
Prof. Kokko's lecture, 'A long life: how desirable is it, evolutionarily speaking?', takes place on Thrusday, 10 July 2025 at 11:15 in the castle's auditorium of the University of Münster.
Like all vertebrates, humans have two types of immune memory: the memory of the acquired (adaptive) immune system, which is highly specific to certain pathogens and long-lasting and makes vaccinations possible, and that of the innate immune system – a 'trained immunity' – which reacts quickly but less specifically. Invertebrates such as insects only have the innate immune system, but they also possess a form of immunisation through contact with pathogens ('immune priming'). Until now, there has been no study on how the confrontation of pathogens with hosts that have such an activated innate immune system affects the evolution of pathogens, and specifically their 'dangerousness', or virulence. A research team at the University of Münster led by evolutionary biologist Prof Dr Joachim Kurtz has now investigated this for the first time through experimental evolution of an insect pathogen (Bacillus thuringiensis tenebrionis) in red flour beetles. One result: after some time of evolution, the pathogen’s virulence differed significantly between the different bacterial lines. This greater diversity could accelerate the adaptation of pathogens to their hosts.
Korša A, Baur M, Schulz NKE, Anaya-Rojas JM, Mellmann A, Kurtz J (2025): Experimental evolution of a pathogen confronted with innate immune memory increases variation in virulence. PLOS Pathogens 21(6), e1012839. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1012839
Dog owners who would like to support a research project on animal welfare by JICE members from the Department of Behavioural Biology at the University of Münster can do so via smartphone – with the ‘WAU app’. This free app allows interested people to record the emotions and behaviour of their dogs. No special knowledge is required. The WAU app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. WAU is a citizen science project at the university on the topic of ‘Emotions, laterality and personality in dogs’.
The Rectorate of the University of Münster has approved the joint research initiative 'Animal Personality Meets Personality Psychology' for funding within the University’s strategic Topical Programmes line. The project is led by JICE members Prof Dr Mitja Back (Personality Psychology
Psychology) and Prof Dr Melanie Dammhahn (Behavioural Biology).
The project aims to establish a novel interdisciplinary research bridge between animal personality research and psychological personality science. Although both fields have developed in parallel—conceptually and methodologically—there has been little systematic exchange between them. This initiative addresses precisely that gap, creating a research forum that fosters dialogue between biology, psychology, and related disciplines.
The research of evolutionary biologist Dr Reshma R focuses on the causes and consequences of individual variation in phenotypic traits and how these contribute to the adaptation of populations to rapid environmental changes. As part of her doctorate at the University of Münster, she investigated the role of evolutionary capacitance in facilitating faster adaptation by enabling populations to store sufficient variation in the form of cryptic genetic variation and release it during stressful conditions. As a part of this, she extensively documented individual variation in circadian activity rhythms in red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum). During her ECR Fellowship, she will examine individual differences in potential trade-offs between activity rhythms and life-history traits in beetles, and prepare a proposal for an individual research grant.
A recent study provides evidence that some results of behavioural experiments with insects cannot be fully reproduced. Until now, possible reproducibility problems have been little discussed in this context. A research team from Bielefeld, Münster and Jena, working together in the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre NC³ (CRC-TRR 212), now shows that behavioural experiments with insects are also affected by the ‘reproducibility crisis’.
Mundinger C, Schulz NKE, Singh P, Janz S, Schurig M, Seidemann J, Kurtz J, Müller C, Schielzeth H, von Kortzfleisch VT, Richter SH (2025): Testing the reproducibility of ecological studies on insect behavior in a multi-laboratory setting identifies opportunities for improving experimental rigor. PLOS Biology 23, e3003019. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003019
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz (Harvard University, UCLA) highlights in "The moody animal: The ancient origins of human mood disorders" how findings from the animal world can deepen our understanding of mental diseases.
In “From birds to words”, Michael H. Goldstein (Cornell University) provides insights from his comparative approach to the development of communication – covering birdsong and human language.
Thirty years after the discovery of maternal hormones in bird eggs, their evolutionary consequences remain unresolved. In a large-scale pre-registered meta-analysis recently published in the journal Ecology Letters, an international research team sought to shed light on this complex field of study. The last author of the study, Dr. Alfredo Sánchez-Tójar from the Faculty of Biology at Bielefeld University and member of the JICE, together with his co-authors, systematically analyzed 438 effect sizes from 57 studies on 19 wild bird species to assess whether higher concentrations of maternal hormones in eggs are indeed associated with fitness benefits for offspring and parents.
Mentesana L, Hau M, D’Amelio PB, Adreani NM, Sánchez-Tójar A (2025): Do egg hormones have fitness consequences in wild birds? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Ecology Letters 28, e70100. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70100
The fourth Individualisation Symposium, organised by the Joint Institute for Individualisation in a Changing Environment (JICE), the collaborative research project InChangE, and the Transregional Collaborative Research Center 212, will focus on life transitions. At its core is the question of how individuals — both humans and animals — experience and navigate biological, psychological and social turning points. The event will bring together leading scientists from natural sciences, social sciences and humanities on 25 March 2025 at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University, offering new perspectives on individualisation.
Migration, climate crisis, Russia's war against Ukraine, the Israel-Gaza conflict and the rise of authoritarian populism: The Bundestag election on 23 February is characterised by numerous conflict issues that are causing uncertainty and concern among the population. What influence do media coverage and individual news consumption have on this? How is the assessment of the threat situation related to personality traits? A team led by psychologist and JICE member Prof Dr Mitja Back and political scientist Prof Dr Bernd Schlipphak from the University of Münster is addressing these questions in the online study 'Dynamics of individual political attitudes in times of crisis (DiPol)'. Interested people are invited to take part and answer questions about their concerns and attitudes as well as their media use for around ten minutes every day for four weeks.
The psychologist Prof. Dr. Mitja Back and the biologist Prof. Dr. Melanie Dammhahn, both members of the JICE, have been awarded funding from the European Association of Personality Psychology (EAPP) to hold an interdisciplinary Focus Meeting on "Integrating human and animal personality research". Together with their co-organisers Prof. Dr. Lars Penke from the University of Göttingen and Prof. Dr. Cornelia Wrzus from the University of Heidelberg, they will bring together leading international scholars from the fields of human personality psychology and animal personality research at the University of Münster at the end of 2025. By combining the expertise of both fields, the meeting aims to facilitate a comprehensive exchange of insights and methodologies across disciplines and to develop new approaches for advancing our knowledge of personality in humans and animals.
In a recent publication, JICE members Prof Dr Helene Richter, Prof Dr Melanie Dammhahn and Prof Dr Sylvia Kaiser from the University of Münster and Prof Dr Barbara Caspers from Bielefeld University call for a more nuanced view of animal experiments. In two interviews, they describe which challenges scientists face, why animal experiments are necessary and how a more differentiated assessment of research with and on animals could look like.
Richter SH, Caspers BA, Dammhahn M, Kaiser S (2024): Animal research revisited – the case of behavioural studies. Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TREE), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.11.014
The Volkswagen Foundation is funding the new research project 'Personalization TrAIning in Medicine (PerTRAIN) – Integrating State-of-the-Art Personalized Knowledge and Technologies into Medical Education' by JICE member Prof Dr Mitja Back with nearly 1.5 million euros. As part of the initiative ‘Change! Research Groups', the foundation brings researchers together with non-scientific partners to identify causes of societal problems and find practical solutions.
In cooperation with Prof Dr Bernhard Marschall from the University Hospital Münster and Dr Ulrich Burgbacher from the it company tapdo technologies, the funded project aims to develop a training programme for personalised communication with the help of AI-generated language models and integrate it into medical education. This aspect is currently insufficiently addressed in this context, although the ability of doctors to recognise different patient personalities, to reflect on them and to communicate adequately with them is crucial for sustainable treatment.
At the traditional New Year's reception of the University of Münster, the physician and JICE member Prof Dr Dr Udo Dannlowski received the Research Prize 2024 for his excellent, internationally recognised research. The prize is awarded every two years and is worth 30,000 euros, with which the Rectorate supports the research of the winner.
Udo Dannlowski is Director of the Institute for Translational Psychiatry at the University of Münster and the Section for Transitional Psychiatry at the Department of Mental Health at the University Hospital Münster. His research interests include functional and structural imaging as well as affective disorders such as depression. The jury emphasised his innovative research in the field of machine learning, which has reshaped psychiatric research, as well as his publications in renowned international journals, which demonstrate the high relevance of his scientific work for the research field of mental disorders. Additionally, he acts as a role model and mentor for many early career researchers.
