Evolutionary Developmental Biology is a rapidly emerging synthesis of developmental and evolutionary biology and one of the “hot topics” in the life sciences. One focus of Evo Devo is to investigate the evolutionary consequences of developmental mechanisms, thereby, as is often argued, complete the Modern Synthesis. A lot of Evo Devo is triggered by recent advances in developmental genetics, such as the discovery of the conserved nature of Hox genes. However, Evo Devo still lacks a model system that combines the advantages of known developmental and molecular data with existing phenotypic variation on a phylogenetic scale AND the possibility of experimental manipulation. Social Insects fit that bill. This talk is an introduction to the first Center workshop on Evo Devo as a Model System for Evo Devo, which will take place in mid-April. In this workshop and in a series of discussions leading up to it we will develop a proposal how the study of Sociogenesis in Social Insects can become the foundation of an experimental and theoretical research program within Evo Devo that allows for more direct inferences than the traditional models systems and problems, such as the fin-limb transition in basal tetrapods.