Emerging BioAcousticians days

From June 28, 2023 to June 30, 2023

Hameaux les Echandes - Unieux - Saint-Etienne

In recent decades, the use of bioacoustics has grown considerably. A new generation of bioacousticians is emerging with new technology, new ideas, bringing with it a new dynamic and promising perspectives. However, surprisingly, in Europe, no scientific event has existed that could allow these young researchers to merge and connect.

The years of covid have taught us that networking and social exchanges are essential for healthy research. It is within this framework that young researchers in bioacoustics at ENES/CRNL/LabEx CeLyA have held, for the first time, a dedicated multi-day event for young researchers in bioacoustics (from 28 to 30 July 2023). This scientific event named ‘Emerging Bioacoustian's Days’ was initially created to promote bioacoustics, to animate the scientific community, to encourage networking among students and other emerging researchers and to foster interdisciplinary dialogue within this field. It is important to give the people who constitute the future of our discipline the desire for collaboration, exchange, and interdisciplinary study.


From a scientific point of view, this scientific event was a great success in several aspects:

- About 50 participants (i.e., undergraduate students, masters, PhDs, and postdocs).
- More than twenty institutions (from France, Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark, South Africa) were represented during these days.
- The congress included more than 40 oral presentations in 9 scientific sessions.
- 3 plenary talks led by experienced bioacousticians.
- 3 interactive workshops were organized around the application of bioacoustics outside the laboratory, the use of AI and training in Soundgen software (acoustic processing and synthesized sound production).
- During all the congress, the participants were invited to participate in a psycho-acoustic experiment, carried out by a PhD student, in the context of her PhD research on the origin and development of non-verbal vocal modulation and imitation abilities in humans.


The content of the conference was so successful that a group of emerging bioacousticians have decided to organize a new edition next year in the same format as the first.

Beyond the scientific aspect, these days were carried out in an eco-socio-responsible spirit.

To enable all students to take part, the organising team aimed to make registration, meals and accommodation free for all participants.
Thanks to the many sponsors who rallied round the event, this objective was achieved. The team warmly thanks them, without whom the organisation of these first days could not have been optimal.

The sex ratio of participants was balanced.

This eco-responsible spirit was the common thread throughout the days with the reduction of the use of plastic (rental of dishes, water fountain, etc) and no paper printouts offered to participants concerning the congress (online program, abstract booklet, etc).
Conference lunches were provided by an organic shop. Meals was made as much as possible with local and seasonal products and vegetarian food.
Participants were encouraged to use public transport to get to the conference venue wherever possible.
This encouragement was clearly considered, as only one participant from South Africa flew to the conference. With accommodation on the congress site, no transport was required during the three-day event.