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New Directions in Systematics

An international workshop organised by the European Science Foundation Network in Systematic Biology.

Aldemar Royal Mare Village & Cretan Village hotels , Hersonisos, Crete, Greece

15th-18th October 1997

The fifth and final workshop of the European Science Foundation Network in Systematic Biology will look to the future of systematics, at a time when its importance is gaining new recognition. Advances in biological techniques, the development of analytical tools to study huge data sets, and international interest in improving the conservation and management of biodiversity, are highlighting our basic need for a well-founded framework in which to generate, organise and communicate knowledge about the natural world.

A central objective of the workshop will be to develop the key elements of a proposal for an ESF-funded Programme in Systematic Biology. The purpose of this Programme will be to advance systematics by promoting European integration and collaboration, based around the three themes of the workshop:

1. Taxonomic Challenges of Species-Rich Groups
2. Links Between Developmental Biology and Systematics
3. Bioinformatics: Communicating and Using Taxonomic Knowledge

The workshop will recommend the most important issues to be addressed and the ways in which the Programme could best capitalise on Europeís extensive resources in systematic collections and expertise.

The Programme begins with a series of keynote presentations on the three themes. Participants will then divide into three working groups, each focusing on one of the themes. The working group sessions will include offered presentations which, like the introductory presentations, will put forward ideas on the most important issues to be tackled at the European level. Each working group, led by a Chairman (identified below), will be responsible for making specific proposals on how its theme should be addressed in a potential ESF Programme.