Scientific expertise of local specialists is critical in animal behaviour research, but often under-recognized and under-appreciated. Based on research conducted at the Budongo Conservation Field Station in Uganda, former NCCR Evolving Language member Adrian Soldati, guest researcher at the University of Zurich, explored the phenomenon in a new study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Exploring the past, present and future of language
The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language is a nationwide interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together research groups from the humanities, from language and computer science, the social sciences, and the natural sciences at an unprecedented level. Together, we aim at solving one of humanity’s great mysteries: What is language? How did our species develop the capacity for linguistic expression, for processing language in the brain, and for consistently passing down new variations to the next generation? How will our capacity for language change in the face of digital communication and neuroengineering?
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Upcoming Events
NCCR/CogSci Seminar – TBA – Philippe Schlenker
ça vous parle? – Semaine du Cerveau 2026
NCCR/Neuro-Connect Seminar – TBA – Peter Hagoort
Our Network
Evolving Language is led by Balthasar Bickel (Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), UZH), Nina Kazanina (Department of Basic Neurosciences, UNIGE) and Klaus Zuberbühler (Institute of Biology, UNINE). Over 40 research groups across Switzerland are taking part in this NCCR, from 9 different institutions as well as partners in industry (Google AI, Sonova) and public organisations. The project has 3 leading houses: the University of Zurich, the University of Geneva and the University of Neuchâtel.
Leading house
Co-leading houses
Funding agency
Partners
Swiss Data Science Center
Wyss Center
Citizen Science Zürich
Fondation Campus Biotech
Zoo Basel
Neurocenter Science Zurich
Liri
Sonova
Google Research
NCCR Research Facilities
