Behaviour 2023

Behaviour 2023 is a multi-disciplinary and international congress that focuses on animal behaviour. Delegates will come from a wide range of backgrounds - from ethology to behavioural genetics and anthropology. The congress will take place at Bielefeld University, Germany, from August 14th to August 20th 2023 (see the website https://behaviour2023.com). We are preparing to run a conference with many guests from Germany and abroad, at every career stage. Bielefeld hosted the International Ethological Congress, as it was known back then, in 1977 and we are thrilled to try our best to make 2023 an equally exciting and stimulating event.

The congress consists of 7 days of various exciting activities. Each day will typically start at 9:00 and finish around dinnertime. There will be two plenary talks from Monday to Friday, one before and one after lunch. Lunch break will be one hour and we have two coffee breaks with about 30 min each. The remainder of the days will be filled with talks in parallel sessions, including those that are part of symposia, and workshops. There will be two evenings filled with poster sessions. In addition to the scientific talks, we will organize social events, sport events and excursions. These social events will include ‘safe-space’ events with strict policies to provide an accommodating, safe, and encouraging environment for everyone. The excursions will be held in the morning of Sunday August 20th.

We offered a very limited number of travel grants from the Behaviour 2023 organisation ourselves. The period of applying for these has unfortunately already expired. Please have a look at the external funding opportunities.

Additionally, the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB) offically announced grants for travelling to the Behaviour 2023. You will find their offer here.

Likewise, the Ethologische Gesellschaft is offering travel grants for the Behaviour2023. Please fill out this form to apply.

Please have a look at our list of external funding possibilities.

Registration fees include: conference participation (August 14th - 20th), 6 lunches (vegetarian), hot and cold drinks and snacks during coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon, drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and snacks during the two poster sessions, a ticket for public transportation within Bielefeld during the time of the conference, as well as a conference bag with a re-usable mug and bottle. The registration fee for students is 250€ before April 30th and 500€ for the standard tickets (Early Bird tickets). Between April 30th and June 30th, the prices are 300€ and 600€, respectively. If choosing the student rate, please remember to show proof of your student status (e.g. certificate of enrollment or student ID) to our staff at the registration desk on the first day of the conference.

In addition, Germany will have a so-called ’49-euro ticket’ available in 2023 that includes unlimited access to regional trains across the country for one month. This makes travel to Bielefeld a lot more affordable. Lastly, the confirmation of your registration will give you access to discounts for accommodation within Bielefeld (see our list under “Accommodation”).

Our current plans are to host the event in-person only. We are planning to offer a free trial option for students that cannot afford or manage to attend the conference in person where we stream pre-recorded talks into the lecture halls, giving the students a chance to present their work and answer questions. More details on who will be eligible and how to apply are soon to follow.

You can submit your abstract through our website. To register for the conference, please visit our Registration Platform.

Abstract submission closes April 30th 2023.

Registration for the Behaviour 2023 can be done through our Registration Platform.

Registration fees include: conference participation (August 14th - 20th), 6 lunches (vegetarian), hot and cold drinks and snacks during coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon, drinks (alcoholic and non-alcohol) and snacks during the two poster sessions, a ticket for public transportation within Bielefeld during the time of the conference, as well as a conference bag with a reusable mug and bottle.

Early Bird (until April 30th) registration for students is 250 euros and 500 euros for the standard non-student tickets. Between April 30th and June 30th, the prices are 300 euros and 600 euros for students and non-students, respectively.

Yes you can cancel your registration if needed. The cancellation fee is 20% when cancelled up to 60 days before the event (August 14th 2023), 50% when cancelled up to 30 days before the event, and no refund shall be given when cancelled within less than 30 days before the event. 

Early-Bird registration tickets can be purchased until April 30th 2023. Between May 1st and June 30th, the prices change to regular registration fees.

BSc, MSc and PhD students can make use of our reduced registration fees.

If choosing the student rate, please remember to show proof of your student status (e.g. certificate of enrollment or student ID) to our staff at the registration desk on the first day of the conference.

Registration closes on June 30th 2023.

Presentations will be 15 minutes long, with additional 3 minutes time for questions. Details on the presentations will follow after abstract submission closes.

We have outlined a strict Code of Conduct outlining expected and unacceptable behaviour at the congress, as well as the consequences of not adhering to this. There will be a ‘hotline’ available to report any cases and our organisation team will be professionally trained to de-escalate situations and will be available to provide help. Moreover, to ensure everyone’s safety, the University’s security team will be available around the clock in case help or assistance is required.

Yes, we will provide free professional childcare. You can indicate your need for childcare during the registration process. We will also have parent-children offices equipped with a desk, a comfortable couch and lots of toys and books for the little ones. For breastfeeding mothers, we will provide a calm and comfortable room in which you can use a breast pump or feed your baby undisturbed. More details on child-care will be communicated shortly, and you can find more details under Inclusivity and Accessibility.

It is possible to book multiple tickets for the excursion you would like to attend, for example if you are bringing your child(ren) and/or partner. Simply adjust the number of bookings using the plus/minus buttons at the bottom right of the respective excursion. Multiple bookings are only possible for the same excursion, i.e. the accompanying person/people has/have to attend the same excursion as you do. If you would like to book more than the maximum of 5 tickets, please send us an email.

Unfortunately, because we can only offer a very limited number of congress dinner tickets, you cannot bring your partner. If you are bringing your child(ren) to the congress and would like to attend the dinner, please get in touch with us.

We can offer support during the conference through technical devices such as an inductive listening system and will assist in finding a suitable sign language interpreter. Furthermore, we want to ensure unlimited mobility during the conference regardless of personal limitations in movability. If you require any other assistance or would like to point out other possibilities that could make a big event such as the Behaviour 2023 congress more easily accessible, please let us know by sending an email to behaviour2023@uni-bielefeld.de
Please find more information here.

If you are interested in hosting an event of any sort, please contact us at  behaviour2023@uni-bielefeld.de and we are happy to discuss the possibilities.

As of now (start of 2023), there are no COVID-19 related restrictions in Germany and only minimal regulations. These regulations include mandatory medical masks (surgical or FFP2 masks) in public transport, with mandatory FFP2 masks specifically in the ‘long-distance’ trains (IC’s and ICE’s). We hope the rules will not change and therefore aim to host an in-person event, although we do encourage testing for COVID-19 before departing to Bielefeld as well as regularly during the congress to minimize the potential spread. Please also check the information from the federal ministry of health.

One of the big impacts that large events have on the environment is through large waste and the carbon footprint of the large number of meals provided. The organization committee aims to reduce these impacts by offering organic, vegan or vegetarian catering only. Moreover, we will make sure no food is wasted by keeping our catering team updated on the number of participants. This is where you can actually help us: please make sure to indicate during the registration if you intend to skip some days of the conference, so that we can plan accordingly. In case you have any food-related intolerance or allergies, please let us know during the registration as well. In case there is still some excess food, we will use our social media platforms to inform students or people in need that might be happy about some free meals due to a tight budget.

Our conference bag will come with a reusable and sealable mug that will help reduce plastic/paper waste as well as the water needed to clean several mugs over the course of a day.

To minimize paper waste, we will not print out the schedule. Instead, we ask the delegates to do this themselves if they think a printed version of the schedule is useful for them. We will offer a digital agenda that includes the full timetable of the congress.

In order to make the public transport more accessible and to promote its use over taxis and/or cars, registration fees will include unlimited use of the public transport network within Bielefeld.

In addition, the university of Bielefeld takes a range of measures to minimize our impact, including the use of recycled paper (toilets, tissues, printing) and separating waste for instance. Check the website for more details https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/themen/nachhaltigkeit/#.

Yes, there will also be talks given outside of symposia in topics that are not covered yet by the symposia. You can indicate a best-suiting topic in the abstract submission form.

Yes, you can indicate if you would like to be automatically considered for a poster if your talk does not get accepted in the abstract submission form.