More about the Programme

Living organisms are characterized by a plethora of chemical and structural details at numerous complexity levels making comprehensive understanding and modelling at every spatial and temporal scale an unattainable task. One aim of the FUNCDYN Programme is the development of systematic methods for reduction of model complexity by restricting the modelling to relevant temporal and spatial scales without losing the quantitative predictive ability. Another aim is the development of equipment and experimental protocols for the efficient collection of relevant dynamic data. During the last 30 years analogous  spatio-temporal problems in the fields of chemistry and physics have been successfully approached by implementation of theoretical and experimental methods derived from the theory of non-linear dynamics. A part of the proposed project is devoted to studies of non-biological systems, which are dynamically similar to living cells such as interacting oscillators operating far from thermodynamic equilibrium. These type of studies are an inspiration for similar approaches for bio-systems and essential for testing the feasibility of new analytic and experimental ideas.

An important instrument for FUNCDYN is the integration on a European level of researchers from the field of non-linear dynamics with researchers from biochemistry and biology. Another important instrument is the integrated use of expensive equipment scattered over Europe for in vivo large scale-data collection.