Evolve Fellowship Programme

“EVOLVE”
Where did life originate from and how does it evolve?

Where do we come from? One of the oldest and deepest questions for humanity is about the origin of life. This is not just about looking back, but inextricably connected to questions about the world we live in, and our future. Where are we heading? Are we alone in the Universe? Can life cope with self-inflicted phenomena such as climate change and virus pandemics? Driven by fundamental advances in biology, astronomy, physics, and chemistry, we are now making exciting progress, and starting to grasp some details about the origin of life on Earth and beyond.

What is EVOLVE about?

Evolve is all about complex systems and their role in the evolution of life. Firmly embedded in broad consortium. Evolve has a solid basis to progress efficiently and quickly. This will be done through a combination of four interconnected challenges:

The origin and co-evolution of life and its host planet,
The origin of complex life and of ecosystems,
Predicting the future of life on Earth, and
The universality of life’s properties across the universe.

EVOLVE Research Projects

Integrating systems chemistry and evolutionary perspectives on the origin of life

The complex problem of the origin of life can be approached from different angles and scientific disciplines: while chemists may attempt to extrapolate from their understanding of self-organization processes in organochemical networks towards the first living systems, biologists may reason ‘from hindsight’, based on their knowledge of extant life and their reconstruction of the most plausible pathways that led to its emergence.

Adaptive behaviour of supramolecular structures scrutinised at the single-particle level

In the origin of life, the transition from small building blocks to complex, organised assemblies set the stage for the emergence of biological systems. These supramolecular structures bridge the gap between simple organic molecules and the complex, organised systems that characterise living systems.

STED Super-resolution microscopy to reveal early cellular mechanisms of cell division

ESCRT-III proteins form supramolecular structures that are essential for membrane remodelling processes across the tree of life. In archaea and eukaryotes, the ESCRT-III proteins assemble into polymers that cut membrane tubes together with Vps4, an AAA–ATPase.

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Participating institutes

The Evolve Fellowship Programme is a joint initiative by six world-leading research institutes of two universities in The Netherlands (University of Groningen, Leiden University):

Groningen Biomolecular Sciences & Biotechnology Institute
Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Leiden Institute of Chemistry
Stratingh Institute for Chemistry
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials

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Supervisors

Within Evolve, we have a pool of 20 supervisors. This gives you the opportunity to work directly with top-level academics who have won prestigious prizes and grants, such as the Nobel Prize, ERC Advanced Grant and NWO TOP grant.

Many supervisors have vast experience as institute directors or board members, are members of esteemed platforms such as the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) or the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and/or have much experience with European training or networking programmes.

Apart from their high quality scientific and managerial experience, all Evolve supervisors have their own research group and are experienced in supervising researchers, both on PhD and post-doc level.

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The COFUND project Evolve has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101179819.

“EVOLVE” Where did life originate from and how does it evolve?