The ‘Bridging the Technological Gap – 2nd edition’ workshop took place in Leipzig (Germany) between 4 and 10 August 2024. The aim of this workshop was to spread technological innovations in the study of cognition and behaviour of human and non-human primates. Participants attended courses and received training in the use of non-invasive technologies to assess welfare and cognition of humans and non-human primates, such as motion-tracking, eye-tracking, gaze-tracking and pupillometry, thermal imagining, and machine learning. Workshop speakers and participants were mostly early career researchers (PhD students and postdocs). In total there were around 30 participants and 20 speakers. A side-objective of this workshop was to allow young researchers to learn about innovative technologies, build connections between interdisciplinary and international scholars, and encourage the exchange of ideas and future collaborations.
Coralie Galvagnon, PhD student at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland, received a COST Action LIFT conference attendance fund to participate and present a poster about working group 2. The poster (shown below) aimed to present the COST Action and to showcase the methodologies that are being explored within WG2 to advance positive animal welfare science.
As the workshop was designed about humans and non-humans primates study, most of the participants were working with these species. They have therefore showed a great interest and curiosity in the LIFT, as it was something new for them. Although the workshop did not focus on farm animals, the techniques presented seemed very interesting to look at for the study of farm animals, and so gave some ideas for methods to the study positive animal welfare.
