Research plays a very important part in the establishment of the College of Life and Environmental Science. The college has committed a significant part of its investment in expanding its research capability through continuous recruitment of new talents and upgrading of laboratory facilities, delivering research excellence, and making an impact on some of the world’s most pressing issues.

The research programs conducted in this college fall into two broad main categories: those that are more biological in nature and those that are environmentally oriented.

In the biological category, the research program centers on three areas:

1. Isolation of bioactive compounds from medicinal plants and animals and the pharmacological characterization of their biological activities, such as anti-diabetic, anti-tumor, and anti-aging activities.

2. Identification, cloning, and expression of metabolism-related or immune response-related genes from medicinal plants and animals and structural and functional characterization of the products of these genes.

3. Breeding and improvement of medicinal plants and animals. The selection and breeding of good species of Wenzhou’s characteristic seaweed (Sargassum fusiforme) and the development of high-value seaweed polysaccharides have reached the advanced stage.

In addition, there are also more basic-oriented research programs, and these include the investigation of toxicity to marine bivalves caused by heavy metals (e.g., cadmium) and the underlying mechanism of such toxicity, and the study of metabolic adjustment in small birds in response to seasonal acclimatization and temperature acclimation.

As for the environmental category, the research program is dominated by the ecological restoration of the water environment. The research emphasizes regional environmental issues but will also apply the knowledge gained to the nationwide level.  The research and development of ecologically friendly decentralized sewage treatment technology are at the international leading level, and this technology has been applied in various parts of the country in the form of demonstration projects.  Water eutrophication and the mechanism underlying the formation of cyanobacteria bloom and its associated control technology have become the key features that mark the direction of water ecology research conducted by the college. The research direction taken in water ecology (e.g., the mechanism of eutrophication and cyanobacterial bloom and the technology that controls the bloom) has achieved scientific results that are considered world leading.

In recent years, the college has presided over more than 80 national projects, such as those affiliated with the National Science and Technology Major Project, the National Social Science Active Project, and the National Key Research and Development Program, and those supported by the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as more than 90 research projects at the provincial and ministerial levels. On the publication front, the college has published more than 300 research papers, including in top-ranking journals such as Cell, Nature, Science, PNAS, and other high-level journals. The college also published nearly 70 invention patents and more than 20 books. In addition to the outstanding achievement in publication, the college has also received several awards such as the first prize in the Zhejiang Science and Technology Award (Science and Technology Progress Award), the first prize in the Zhejiang Science and Technology Award (Natural Science Award), and the first prize of "Innovation Achievement Award" of China Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation and Promotion Award among others.