As a world leader in its field, the AHRC CECD will advance understanding of human cultural diversity. It will be a collaborative institution involving a large national and international network. Its research programme will focus on the relation between cultural and linguistic diversity, as these influence and respond to variation in the size and structure of human populations. Methodological and theoretical advances in evolutionary biology will be adapted and applied to a wide range of case studies in cultural history. The Centre will undertake a major outreach programme to convey the importance of this work to academic and non-academic audiences.