The Origins Institute (OI) is an interdisciplinary science research institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. It began its operations as an institute on July 1, 2004. The OI's vision is to promote origins research that addresses fundamental, unresolved big questions in science, such as: "How did the universe begin?", "How did stars, galaxies and planets form?", "What is the origin of matter and of the elements?", "How did life begin on Earth, and can it also develop on other planets?", "What was the nature of the Universal Ancestor, and how did life evolve from it?", and "How did intelligent beings arise and evolve on Earth"?.
The Origins Institute research is categorized into six interconnecting themes: space-time (particle physics), elements and matter (nuclear astrophysics), structure of the universe (astronomy), life (evolutionary biology, astrobiology), species (biodiversity), and consciousness (neuroscience). Reflecting the trans-disciplinary nature of the research done at the OI, professional members within the institute hail from many fields, including anthropology, astrobiology, astrophysics, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, mathematics, neuroscience, and philosophy.
Ralph Pudritz, a theoretical astrophysicist at McMaster, spearheaded the OI project and was its first director. Jonathon Stone, a computational biologist from McMaster, was the institute's first associate director. Well-known academics David Deamer, Martin Rees and Stuart Kauffman sit on the OI advisory council. The current director of the institute is Professor Paul Higgs.