With the rapid change in the world’s climate and extensive anthropogenic impact on the world’s environment, many species have become extinct and countless ecosystems have been damaged. To adhere to the ‘Convention on Biological Diversity’, to save endangered species, and to promote sustainable development of agriculture and natural resources in Taiwan, Dr. Yuan-Tseh Lee (former president of Academia Sinica) and Dr. Peter Raven (Academician of the National Academy of Sciences, USA) organized The International Symposium on the Future of Biodiversity in Taiwan in May 2000. At this symposium, there were suggestions for Academia Sinica to develop a new research center to promote biodiversity research, sustainable development, and education. In 2001, the proposal for establishing the Biodiversity Research Center (BRC), Academia Sinica was approved in the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan. On January 1st of 2004, the Biodiversity Research Center was formally established at Academia Sinica.

BRC has its own high-throughput genomics core, which operates all major sequencing platforms, including Illumina HiSeq2500 and MiSeq, PacBio Sequel, and Oxford Nanopore GridION. BRC hosts its own Biodiversity Ph.D. program within the Taiwan International Graduate Program of Academia Sinica, which regularly attracts Ph.D. students from around the world.

In addition to excellence in scientific research, BRC contributes academic services globally having established the Thematic Center in Systematics and Biodiversity Informatics and the Thematic Center in Marine Sciences, which oversees the Green Island Marine Research Station. BRC runs an SCI journal Zoological Studies, a place for international scholars to publish high quality open-access papers free of page charges. BRC houses the Biodiversity Research Museum which houses more than a hundred thousand research specimens including plants, fishes, birds, and invertebrates.

Biodiversity Research Center (BRC) is located in the inter-disciplinary building and the New Greenhouse Building in the campus of Academia Sinica. BRC also manages the Green Island Marine Science Station located in the Green Island, Taiwan and the Yuen-Yuan Lake Field Research Station located in the high mountain Yuen-Yuan Lake. The Biodiversity Research Museum houses extensive important specimens for research and education