Lecture: concluding remarks
         DEB symposium: 30 years of research on metabolic organisation
Speaker: Bas Kooijman
Date: 2009/04/22
Location: Ifremer Brest

Advanced research calls for a holistic and fundamental approach that
needs quantitative theory and theory-inspired experimentation. This
requires far more knowledge than any single individual can possibly
acquire. For the use of technical equipment (including e.g. computers) we
happily accept that we need to know how it works, not how it is
constructed. For models, however, many researchers still seem
reluctant to use models they don't fully understand in technical
detail. This limits the choice to unrealistically simple models that do
not meet the criteria for successfully guiding further research.

During the last three days, we demonstrated to be able to look beyond
these limitations met by individually working scientists, and choose
for multidisciplinary collaboration to solve problems that
matter. Although this extends our combined capabilities substantially,
efficient collaboration comes with its own need for skills.
Multidisciplinary research not only requires a carefully chosen
composition of the research group in relation to the scientific
problem to be solved, but also needs a sufficient overlap in knowledge
of team members to allow for productive knowledge exchange. This
requires a substantial time and effort investment for all participants
in collaboration at a moment when the profits are not fully clear
yet. It is only natural that this investment into future success will
continue to be evaluated critically.

This symposium is the first that is fully devoted to DEB research. It
is very satisfying for me to have solid confirmation that 30 years of
focused research by a group of varying composition did set a train
into motion that will be hard to stop. The reason is in the scientific
successes that have been obtained to far. To my judgement, this effort
was not only pleasing, but also well-spend. So it provides motivation
to proceed along the chosen path. The symposium is a pivot for the
further organisation of networking and future collaboration. The near
future will reveal its effectiveness in this respect.

The DEB tele courses have proven to be effective in motivating young
scientists to a fundamental approach to metabolic organisation. Most
present DEB research and activity, such as the AQUAdeb group, an
increasing number of double doctorates and the special issues of the
Journal of Sea Research, originated from these courses. The courses
helped me to organise, optimise and maintain the course documentation,
the DEB-book and its software support DEBtool; the upcoming third
edition is a new step forward, in this respect. I see the link between
the course and the symposium as an excellent opportunity to merge
education with research and to give course participants a rapid and
effective start in mastering the art of abstract conceptual thinking,
which is typical for DEB research, and to find their best way through
the rapidly extending network. We need to further develop this and
possibly extend the course part prior to the symposium, next time in
2011 in Lisbon. We all can be very happy that Tiago and Tania's group
offered to take the lead to organise this symposium; their young and
dynamic group is developing a firm scientific basis that will power
the developments in DEB research.

Tomorrow we will have scientific discussions about exciting research
topics, some of them related to the DEB theme issue of the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society 2010. Needless to say that everybody
is warmly invited to partake in these post-symposium discussions.

After the summer, in Sept/Oct we continue with the second part of the
DEB tele course 2009, which we run 3 parallel programs: "individuals
in depth", "population and ecosystem dynamics" and "effects of
toxicants". I hope and expect that this symposium provided the
motivation to invest the required time and effort these challenging
topics need.

I want to close this symposium with thanking the organising committee,
and especially Marianne Alunno-Bruscia, for the great job they did.  
I know it is a lot of work and we can only be deeply grateful for it.  
I also want to thank Ifremer for the financial support they have given
so far, both for the symposium and for the activities of the AQUAdeb
group, demonstrating their confidence in our enterprise. We did our
best to live up to our promises, and we hope to meet satisfaction
about our achievements.