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"?.