MEARC represents the institutionalisation of a cluster of disciplinary research trajectories in the various regional fields of Modern East Asian Studies. Its explicit purpose is to support, showcase and stimulate genuinely disciplinary research (initially in the disciplines of Politics, History and Philosophy) on Greater China, Japan, and - in the near future - also Korea, in the period from the nineteenth century until the present day. It will achieve this purpose through support of lectures, workshops, conferences, and by the provision of research grants.