SFB 1372 Magnetoreception and Navigation in Vertebrates

Upcoming: 2nd Young Researchers Symposium on Magnetoreception and Navigation (19-21 Nov 2025)

About

The Young Researchers Symposium (YRS) is an international conference for early career researchers (master students, PhDs, PostDocs in their first years) in the field of animal navigation and magnetoreception. Its aim is to provide a space to network and discuss these fascinating topics in a welcoming atmosphere.

The conference is organized by other passionate doctoral researchers, who will invite engaging keynote speakers, and plan scientific talks and poster sessions.

While the first YRS was a great success online, we are more than happy to host this meeting in person and welcome you to our cool location to make the connections even stronger. Accommodation costs and conference fees are covered by SFB 1372, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Feel free to distribute our FLYER!

Location & dates

Keynote speakers

Workshops

Night Science and Creativity: Where Do Good Research Questions Come From?

This workshop introduces "Night Science," as described by Yanai and Lercher, encouraging students to explore the origins of scientific questions and ideas. Focused on the creative and imaginative side of research, it helps students develop innovative research questions and approaches by enhancing their creative thinking.

Open Science and Error Culture in Academic Science

Scientific research inherently involves errors, which, if undetected or undisclosed, can affect both individual projects and future work. While honest errors aren’t deliberate fraud, a lack of error culture can hinder data sharing, as authors fear revealing mistakes may damage their reputation. This workshop encourages participants to (i) share experiences with scientific errors, (ii) raise awareness of error culture in academia, (iii) discuss steps to improve error culture, and (iv) explore how to address risks of poor error management.

Travel grants

If you would like to join the conference to present your research (talk or poster) and have difficulties funding the travel to Hamburg, please send us (young-researchers-symposium[at]uol.de) a motivational letter by June 30th. We will review the letters, followed with the abstract submissions, and consider contributing to the necessary support.

Abstract submission and registration

Abstract submission: 7th April - 30th June 2025

Registration: 1st July - 30th September 2025

Submit Abstract here

Abstract guidelines
In the submission process you can choose between the following options:

I want my abstract to be considered for:

a talk (ca. 15 min)
a poster (A0)
talk or poster

The guidelines below apply for all of the options.

Topics must be related to magnetoreception and/or navigation in animals (vertebrates & invertebrates).

Submitting an abstract
The primary way to submit an abstract is through the abstract submission form (coming up soon). Please include all of the required points, outlined below.

Title
The abstract should start with a short and summarizing title. Optimally, the title should not be longer than 15 words.

Authors and affiliations
Please fill in the author details as follows: first name, last name and affiliation. Please add the email address of the presenting author and mark the name with an asterisk (*).

Body of the abstract
The maximum length of the submitted abstract should not contain more than 300 words.

Terms and conditions
By submitting an abstract, all participants agree to the following terms and conditions:

I confirm that each author/presenter listed agrees with the content of this abstract and has given permission to be listed as an author/presenter.
I have checked the accuracy of the information and referencing within this abstract.
I give the organizers the permission to publish the submitted abstract in the book of abstracts, that will be distributed during the symposium and published online.

Contact

irtg_sfb1372[at]uol.de

young-researchers-symposium[at]uol.de

Past event in 2021: 1st Young Researchers Symposium on Magnetoreception and Navigation

Thanks for joining us!

SFB 1372 hosted its first Young Researchers Symposium on 25-26 November 2021, online. The symposium was organised entirely by PhD students and postdocs, and is aimed at fellow young researchers from a broad range of scientific fields.

The two-day symposium featured talks by fellow junior researchers, in addition to two keynote lectures given by Prof. Marie Dacke (Lund University) and Prof. Nikita Chernetsov (St Petersburg University). In addition, there was an impulse workshop given by Stephanie Trapp: "My Body and Me - Power and Strength of Body Language / Confident Appearance on the Public Stage". We also hosted an informal social session where participants can explore future career choices by chatting with PhDs who have made the transition to industry. During the coffee breaks and the online social hangout at the end of the symposium, participants could get to know each other.

Read the symposium booklet here or by clicking on the cover at the top of the page!

Find out more about our keynote speakers below:

Prof. Marie Dacke

Lund University