Earth-Life Science Institute — Search for the Origin of Earth and Life

The Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) of Tokyo Institute of Technology, established in 2012, is a member of research centers of the World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI) program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). ELSI's mission is to discover the “origins of the Earth and life” through an integrated interdisciplinary approach that brings together top-level domestic and international researchers in fields such as Earth science, life science, and planetary science. ELSI investigates questions such as how Earth formed in the solar system, how life originated on Earth, and how life and the Earth arrived at their present forms. Furthermore, ELSI also considers how life might exist in other planetary systems based on this understanding of how Earth and life on Earth originated.