Academy, Groningen
Founded in 1614, the University of Groningen (RUG) is the second oldest university in the Netherlands. The University of Groningen enjoys an international reputation as one of the leading research universities in Europe. It has a large international network and an excellent reputation for academic teaching with a modern, student-oriented approach. The RUG is a large (27,000 students, of which 15% come from abroad) university that offers a broad and complete range of education and research that includes the natural and social sciences as well as medicine, law, arts, philosophy, theology, geography, mathematics, computer science and economics.
Zernike campus, Groningen
At the RUG, MEME is organized by the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (CEES), a national centre of excellence in ecological and evolutionary research. CEES has as its mission to pursue research that furthers the understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes at all levels of biological organization, with particular emphasis on the integration of ecological and evolutionary approaches. CEES encompasses nine research groups; Animal Ecology, Behavioural Ecology and Self-Organization, Community and Conservation Ecology, Evolutionary Genetics, Marine Benthic Ecology and Evolution, Marine Evolution and Conservation, Microbial Ecology, Plant Ecophysiology and Theoretical Biology. There are a number of close collaborations between CEES and other groups and institutes within the University of Groningen, including the center for behaviour and neurosciences, evolutionary social psychology, sociology, and artificial intelligence.
The local MEME coordinator at the University of Groningen is Prof. Dr. Franjo Weissing.