From 2016 to 2019 Professor Lewens was an investigator on a large, multi-institution project 'Putting the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis to the Test', funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

He was also Principal Investigator for the ERC-funded project A Science of Human Nature? (2011–2016). From 2009 to 2015 he was a Council Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and served on the working parties for two Nuffield Council reports: Novel Techniques for the Prevention of Mitochondrial DNA Disorders: An Ethical Review (June 2012), and Human Bodies: Donation for Medicine and Research (October 2011).

From 2014 to 2017 he was the Deputy Director of CRASSH, the Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.

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