In April 2022, the Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science was established on the Hayama Campus. As the only research center in Japan with "evolution" at its core, the center aims to create a new academic field of "Integrated Evolutionary Science" in collaboration with domestic and overseas research institutions.

The word "evolution" evokes the evolution of living organisms, but technology, culture, and society also evolve.

We consider evolution in such a broad sense and try to address how the system of organisms was created and changed in the 3.8 billion years-long history of life, how human activities (society, psychology, language, culture, etc.) have changed, how global problems in the Anthropocene progress, and what possible solutions can be comprehensively examined from the perspective of evolution.

The Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science thus aims to reconsider the concept of "evolution" and create a new research field "Integrated Evolutionary Science", which not only advances the knowledge system of biology but also incorporates the findings of evolutionary science into human understanding and solutions to social issues.

Hideki Innan
Director, RCIES
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI