About us

About Egenis

Based at the University of Exeter in the UK, Egenis is committed to providing research of the highest international standard into the nature, historical precedents, and philosophical, social and scientific implications of developments in contemporary biosciences. Also covering the cognitive, biomedical and agricultural sciences, we are interested all of the life sciences' socio-political, ethical, as well as epistemic repercussions. We have pioneered new approaches to the understanding of genomics, stem cell science, symbiosis, model organisms, data-intensive research, systems and synthetic biology, heredity, and microbiology.

We have a strongly interdisciplinary culture, encompassing a range of perspectives from social science, biology, and philosophy. The Egenis membership is engaged in developing and running a wide range of highly innovative, interdisciplinary research projects in cooperation with a range of external partners. This research is characterised by its variety of output modes, impact vectors, and policy potential.

We routinely host workshops, events and visitors in these research areas, are home to the international journal HPLS, are active in the boards of international academic societies as well as organising two international summer schools. This lively research culture finds its roots in Egenis' foundation in 2003 as the ESRC Centre for Genomics In Society under the directorship of John Dupré. After 10 years of producing internationally excellent social science research on the social impact of developments in genomic science, the focus and scope evolved and our new title reflects this change. Some details of Egenis' work in its first incarnation are preserved on the ESRC GenomicsNetwork archive website.