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Main scientific challenges now come from the need to integrate the study of short- and long-term adaptive processes. Evolution on a long-time scale has shaped the short-term regulatory mechanisms that determine the potential and limitations for adaptive capacity, ultimately affecting the ecology of species, their interactions with each other and the environment. In turn, the nature of these mechanisms and the ecological interactions of organisms determine the potential direction, speed, and limitation for evolutionary change. Therefore, taking the long-term processes of evolution into account in the analyses of short-term adaptive processes and vice versa is critical for understanding Life. It is also critical for addressing major societal challenges. Knowledge of long-term evolutionary processes is important for understanding the diversity of stress responses, the prevalence and treatment of diseases, individual differences in life history strategies (including differences in health and ageing that are the scope of personalized medicine), as well as for efficient protection, restoration, and management of biodiversity. Knowledge of short-term mechanistic processes is important for understanding the nature, speed, possibilities, and constraints for evolution of response mechanisms like behavioural flexibility, phenotypic and developmental plasticity, or epigenetic inheritance, and thereby for predicting the adaptive capacity of organisms, including modern humans, in a time of rapid environmental change.

Integrating these approaches has the unique potential to provide a new foundation for the life sciences. Recent findings, such as adaptation by non-genetic inheritance and the role of early life events, significant evolution on much shorter time scales than previously thought, brain plasticity much greater than previously assumed, and cascading adaptive responses in species interaction networks-- they all request an integrative approach. After the genomics revolution, it is now time for a next scientific uprising in which the key adaptive processes from genes to organisms to populations to ecosystems are fully integrated across multiple time scales. This integrative approach obviously also requires multidisciplinary research, combining concepts and techniques from different fields within biology. This has been achieved by integrating the former Centre of Behavioural Neurosciences (CBN) with the former Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies (CEES), into the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Science (GELIFES). GELIFES therefore combines ecological, evolutionary, behavioural, physiological, neurobiological, developmental theoretical and statistical modelling approaches, crossing traditional borders of research fields. Fundamental research is the driver for innovative applications, and together with education, the main function of universities. Our vision on GELIFES’ role in society is primarily to provide fundamental knowledge to (1) help to develop new solutions to mitigate societal problems, (2) satisfy and stimulate societal interest in basic biological processes. As reflected in the media, there is increasing interest among the public in fundamental questions varying from how our complex brain works to the amazing biodiversity created by evolution, core topics in our Institute. In addition, given the available expertise within GELIFES and its public funding, we have the responsibility to help more directly solve the current severe societal challenges that will have a huge potential impact on the next generations. The ongoing human population and consumption boom is accelerating the pace of climate change, strains the availability of key resources such as fresh water, food, and health care, increases social instability, and threatens biodiversity around the globe. Therefore, we also tailor part of our research to aid to mitigate these threats by more applied research.