The domestic animal varieties developed in Europe within the last two millennia have had an extraordinary influence on modern societies by providing the primary breeds on which the global human population relies upon for food, clothing, traction, leisure and companionship.

The AnimalFarm consortium aims at developing a Marie Curie ITN network addressing the historical development of the full diversity of European animal farm resources. AnimalFarm will group together a team of European scientists obtaining high resolution data from ancient biomolecules, historical texts and archeological bones, leveraging major technological advances in the fields of archaeology, DNA sequencing, proteomics and machine learning.

Amongst the key objectives of the consortium are: (1) to address the (historical) factors that catalysed the rise of the multi-billion euro animal farming industry, (2) to assess the long-term viability of current agricultural practices, and; (3) to empirically characterise the temporal dynamics of 2,000 years of human selection on farm animals. Organized at the Museum of Toulouse, and supported by the ANR MRSEI programme, the AnimalFarm conference is the first step toward these objectives.

One specificity of AnimalFarm is to exploit the combined potential of a large range of innovative scientific tools, building on an established network of excellent researchers, eight of whom have been awarded individual ERC grants. This network will foster novel synergies by unifying a comprehensive team of collaborators across the fields of biotechnology, humanities and biosciences in order to train a community of young scholars across highly-specialized disciplines. It will also translate research activities into applied solutions to the modern industry by developing innovative tools that will dramatically improve product traceability.