We have just got funds to bring Dr. Octavio Miramontes to the lab of Termitology/UFV for 3 months a year from 2013 to 2015! The grant comes from the 'Science Without Borders' program, run by CNPq and CAPES, two Brazilian research funding agencies.
This visit is meant to be one of several efforts to be carried out by both research groups in a joint effort aiming to unveil the mechanisms involved in the self-organized behavioural ecology of termites and its evolution. Our main goal is to elucidate whether termite movement patterns obey fractal-like distance distributions signaling optimal space usage by individuals that are blind.
Apart from Dr. Miramontes' monthly allowance and air tickets, we also got funds to hire 3 postdoctoral researchers (3 grants of one year each) and to pay a 1-year visit of one doctoral student to Dr. Miramontes' lab, as a 'sandwich' study stay.
R$ 150.000,00 (~75,000 USD) are also available to buy equipment and consumables for this project!