AMIGO: Agency As Matter-Information Goal-Directed Organization

AMIGO is an international research project, supported by the John Templeton Foundation, investigating how purpose, agency, and goal-directed behavior emerge through the interaction of matter and information. 

Based at the Centre Leo Apostel (CLEA), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and led by Professor Tomas Veloz, the project brings together mathematical modelling, empirical research, and philosophy. It examines the material and informational interplays underlying existence-related problem-solving in biological systems and how cooperation between simpler such systems gives rise to new forms of agential organization with emergent goals. 

By connecting theoretical frameworks with evidence from living and synthetic systems and philosophical analysis, AMIGO aims to advance our understanding of life, cognition, and the emergence of increasingly complex forms of agency.