Research Institutes

Research institutes page – picture of a young Greek tortoise


Below is a partial list of academic institutions engaged in research and teaching in the field of Behavioural Biology, covering those based in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. A comprehensive list of Dutch and Flemish institutions can be found here. If you notice any missing institutions, please contact Dr. Manon Schweinfurth at ms397[at]st-andrews.ac.uk.


Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Freiburg (Germany)
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology

Friedrich-Löffler-Institute, Celle (Germany)
Institute of Animal Welfare and Animal Husbandry

German Primate Center, Göttingen (Germany)
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit
Cognitive Ethology Laboratory
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Research Group: Social Evolution in Primates

Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin (Germany)
Department of Animal Behaviour and Neurophysiology
Department of Zoology

Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz (Germany)
Department of Behavioural Ecology and Social Evolution

Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen (Germany)
Department of Animal Physiology
Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Welfare

Konrad Lorenz Research Station, Grünau (Austria)
Centre for Behaviour and Cognition

L’Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne / EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland)
Department of Behaviour and Cognition

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin (Germany)
Department of Evolutionary Ecology

Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich (Germany)
Department of Behavioural Ecology

Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)
Department of Animal Physiology
Department of Zoology

Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour, Konstanz (Germany)
Department of Animal Migration
Department of Collective Behaviour
Department of Ecology of Animal Societies
Research Group: Cognitive and Cultural Ecology

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (Germany)
Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön (Germany)
Research Group: Behavioural Ecology of Individual Differences
Research Group: Behavioural Genomics
Research Group: Biological Clocks
Research Group: Dynamics of Social Behaviour

Max-Planck-Institut for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried & Seewiesen (Germany)
Department of Behavioural Neurobiology
Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics
Research Group: Acoustic and Functional Ecology
Research Group: Animal Communication and Urban Ecology
Research Group: Avian Sleep
Research Group: Behavioural Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology
Research Group: Comparative Cognition
Research Group: Evolution of Sensory Systems
Research Group: Evolutionary Physiology
Research Group: Neural circuits for vocal communication
Research Group: Physiological ecology of life histories

Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Dummerstorf (Germany)
Research Group: Animal Behaviour & Welfare

University of Basel, Basel (Switzerland)
Department of Evolutionary Biology

University of Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
Department of Behavioural Ecology

University of Bern, Veterinary Public Health Institute, Bern (Switzerland)
Division of Animal Welfare

University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld (Germany)
Department of Animal Behaviour
Department of Behavioural Ecology

University of Bonn, Bonn (Germany)
Department of Comparative Neuroanatomy
Department of Neuroethology/Sensory Ecology
Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology

University of Graz, Graz (Austria)
Section Zoology

University of Greifswald, Greifswald (Germany)
Institute of Zoology

University of Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany)
Department of Behavioural Biology

University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck (Austria)
Department of Zoology

University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria)
Division of Livestock Sciences

University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Hannover (Germany)
Institute for Animal Hygiene, Animal Welfare and Farm Animal Behaviour
Institute of Zoology

University of Lausanne, Lausanne (Switzerland)
Department of Ecology and Evolution

University of Münster, Münster (Germany)
Department of Behavioural Biology

University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel (Switzerland)
Department of Behavioural Ecology
Department of Comparative Cognition

University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg (Germany)
Department of Animal Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology

University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück (Germany)
Department of Behavioural Biology

University of Potsdam, Potsdam (Germany)
Department of Animal Ecology

University of Regensburg, Regensburg (Germany)
Department of Evolutionary Biology

University of Siegen, Siegen (Germany)
Department of Ecology and Behavioural Biology

University of Tübingen, Tübingen (Germany)
Department of Animal Evolutionary Ecology
Department of Animal Physiological Ecology
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience
Department of Comparative Zoology

University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna (Austria)
Department for Behavioral and Cognitive Biology
Institute of Animal Welfare Science
Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology
Messerli Research Institute

University of Zurich-Irchel, Zurich (Switzerland)
Department of Animal Behaviour
Department of Ecology and Environment
Department of Evolutionary Biology