A Sino-foreign centre for cross-civilisational comparative research on the historical use of plants and fibres along the Silk Road, informing global study of early civilisations and state formation.
It works alongside the Centre's Lab of Textile Archaeology (Director Feng Zhao), dedicated to the analysis, testing and restoration of textiles — including the Famen Temple liaoling, Han–Jin costumes from Xinjiang Yingpan, Qinghai wool fabrics and Dunhuang colour restoration — and to building a textile-archaeology specimen library.