Establishment of the Foundation
On December 10, 2024 the UK Charity Commission accepted the establishment of the Foundation for Evolution and Mental Health, making it the first charity in the world to be established with the aim of forwarding the field of evolutionary psychiatry.
The broad aims of the Foundation can be found on our mission page, and our official charitable objects can be found on the UK Charity Commission website.
The founding trustees of the Foundation were, with the exception of Dr. Merola, previously involved with the establishment, expansion and running of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) Evolutionary Psychiatry Special Interest Group (EPSIG). Since its inception in 2016, EPSIG has grown to be the leading global organisation for evolutionary psychiatry, hosting events with internationally acclaimed speakers and circulating news in relationship to the field.
The Foundation is established to support the wider growth of the field, via education and research which can extend outside EPSIG’s remit to primarily serve RCPsych members. There is a clear need to communicate the field’s core research to a wider range of scientists, psychotherapists, GPs, teachers, employers, parents and patients, and to support the research community of psychologists, anthropologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, public health professionals and other researchers who would benefit from incorporating evolutionary perspectives into their work.
We believe that many people who haven’t heard about evolutionary psychiatry would benefit from doing so; and many of the people who have heard about it and who want to direct their careers towards research in the field would benefit from research funding. That is the aim of the Foundation.
In the face of the giant waste and history of mistakes and fad theories in psychiatry and clinical psychology, this new organisation is founded upon the belief that evolutionary perspectives will finally, truly, allow humanity to make sound, lasting progress. We are looking forward to helping direct donations towards the places it will make the most difference, and bring evolutionary perspectives on mental health problems to the world.
We are grateful to Randolph Nesse for a generous initial donation to support setting up the Foundation.
