Universal few-body dynamics beyond the S-shell

I will present four instances in which quantum particles with different substructures exhibit universal, common collective dynamics which can be described and understood with zero-range interactions. With these examples, the correlation between: (a), few-body behaviour of composite particles with, (b), properties of their subsystems is analysed in the context of effective (field) theories. I will summarize the status of the latter and their shortcomings when applied to 'beyond S-wave' systems. The role of numerical techniques will be discussed as those have been employed by the authors in order to obtain the data. Specifically, I will introduce Monte-Carlo and a (Gaussian) stochastic variational method for bound-state analyses along with the resonating-group technique which we utilize to extract both bound- and coupled-channel scattering systems. I will conclude with an outlook on how this fundamental research relates to practical problems in, e.g., cold fusion, and how we plan to carry out the program in India. (author)