MacaqueNet Symposia

After the success of the first "Weaving the MacaqueNet" symposium in November 2021, we are excited to host the 2nd symposium "Weaving the MacaqueNet 2,0" as a workshop at IPS (International Primate Society) in Kuching, Malaysia on Monday 21st August, at 10:30 – 13:00 (MYT) both in-person and via Zoom. During the workshop, we will update everyone on the progress we have made since our last virtual symposium, launch the MacaqueNet database, and discuss future directions and the expansion of the database. For MacaqueNet collaborators who are attending IPS in person, this will be the first time the MacaqueNet cohort gets to meet face-to-face, which is really exciting! It seems perfectly fitting that it will be in a macaque-range country. As we will be in Borneo, we wanted to provide a platform specifically for researchers who research Malaysian macaque species as well as early-career macaque researchers. We will hear from these researchers in a series of lightning talks, where they will introduce themselves and their work. The full "Weaving the MacaqueNet 2.0" workshop programme can be viewed here.

In Nov 2021 we successfully hosted our first ever MacaqueNet conference. This 3-day symposium provided an opportunity for all the current data contributors to meet, discuss their research and learn about ongoing projects. Together, we discussed the future directions of MacaqueNet as well as the current state and future avenues of macaque social behaviour research as a whole. This event was a major milestone for MacaqueNet and marked the maturation of MacaqueNet from a mere concept to it becoming a international network of like-minded macaque researchers. While it has been amazing to see the database grow with behavioural data from all over the world, witnessing so many experts in macaque research come together, willing and open to collaborate and share resources in the name of "big team" science has been truly breathtaking and exceeded all expectations.