Students in this program are normally supervised by Faculty members in the following contributing departments/areas: Biological Sciences, Neuroscience, and Psychology.

Research in this program focuses on the evolutionary processes responsible for shaping functionally organised behaviours in a wide variety of organisms. The research targets a range of different behaviours that address the critical life challenges facing these organisms, such as finding food and avoiding predators, attracting and selecting mates, rearing offspring, and negotiating extended networks of social relationships. The emphasis of the research is to examine the potential adaptive basis of different behaviour patterns and understand the underlying genetic, anatomical, physiological, and psychological mechanisms that guide them and their interactions with environmental processes.

Research methods involve studying the behaviour of species in their natural habitats and complementary experimental studies conducted under controlled laboratory settings.