The proposed operation, Molecules for Evolution (MOLEVOL), will permit the CENIEH to pursue its effort to round off its research into human evolution by incorporating the molecular focus (ancient proteins and DNA) into the study of the past. All in all, the CENIEH would provide a unique and multidisciplinary approach to the reconstruction of our origins, by complementing its approach to fossil paleontological evidence with a specialized laboratory (and staff) to work in the emerging line of paleogenomics and paleoproteomics, for which there is strong demand in the field of Human Evolution.

This precision in analyzing the paleontological evidence at the macroscopic and microscopic, including molecular, levels, displays its value to the full when used in a precise geochronological context, making possible not only placing fossils in time by dating, but also placing them in an environment by analyzing changes in the landscape and habitat that could have influenced human migrations and settlements.

The funding received will be employed in creating and commissioning a Molecular Paleobiology Laboratory, in synergy with the building work to double the central space on the 4th and 5th floors, and to hire a researcher and a technician for two years.