Between 11^th and 12^th June 2018, the Nencki Institute hosted an international conference, The Joint East and West Central Europe ISAE Regional Meeting „Animal preferences and animal welfare”, organised by the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE), the Institute of Genetics and the Animal Breeding PAS, the Polish Ethological Society and the Nencki Institute. The conference was attended by 43 participants from Poland (Bydgoszcz, Olsztyn, Rzeszów, Warszawa and its surroundings, and Wrocław) and other European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, France, Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine).

Three invited lectures were entitled „Welfare of riding horses” (Prof. Martine Hausberger, University of Rennes, France), „Social dominance and social preferences in female cattle” (Dr Marek Špinka, Institute of Animal Science, Prague, Czech Republic), and „Social stress in dairy goats - a matter of horns?” (Prof. Dr. med. vet. Susanne Waiblinger, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria). Other communications presented the results of the research dealing with various aspects of applied ethology of many animal groups, mainly horses and other farm animals (chicken, cattle, pigs, goats and sheep), along with laboratory rodents, dogs, Antarctic fur seals and ants.