Carbon Neutral Energy Alliance

The establishment of the institute dates back to 1943, when the Research Institute for Catalysis was established in Hokkaido Imperial University. The Institute was restructured as Catalytic Research Center in 1989 and further into the present form, Institute for Catalysis (ICAT) in 2015. The institute is composed of eight basic research divisions, each of which is responsible for the development of innovative catalysis and the basic science, one development division, which is responsible for applied research, and six clusters led by associate professors and others. While promoting fundamental research in various fields related to catalysis (catalytic chemistry, surface science, theoretical chemistry, organic chemistry, and polymer chemistry), we are also actively engaged in cross-disciplinary research to solve social issues such as the realization of a carbon-neutral society by organizing flexible and strategic external collaboration.

Tokyo Tech InfoSyEnergy Research and Education Consortium (ISE), established in November 2019, aims to achieve digitalized low- and non-carbon energy society by using elemental and system researches that are obtained from big data science – a fusion of AI analysis and data science. More than 20 companies, 6 domestic and overseas public organizations, 16 top universities in the world, participate in ISE as members and collaborators.

The Division of Industry-Academia Collaboration in ISE provides collaboration research projects, various events for members, and energy related information, as well as the publication of proposals obtained through discussion with members.

The Division of Education in ISE established ‘Tokyo Tech Academy of Energy and Informatics’ under the support of a WISE Program by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and is developing doctoral degrees students in energy and information fields to discharge human resources who will create future energy society. To achieve this, we aim to produce students who can systematically understand essence of vast energy-related fields and act in real society — which we call “Multi-Scope・Energy WISE Professionals”.

Since its establishment in 2013, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) has been working to create a sustainable society through transdisciplinary integration of plant science, chemical biology, catalytic chemistry, and biomass engineering.

Using as guides the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions, CSRS are promoting six flagship projects: Innovative Plant Biotechnology, Integrative Symbiological Solutions, Metabolic Genome Engineering, Innovative Catalysts, Leading-edge Polymers, and Advanced Research and Technology Platforms, aiming to establish “sustainable resource science” as a new research field that will contribute to solving environmental problems and food-related issues.

While actively nurturing the next-generation of scientists, we will contribute to a sustainable society where people can live healthy and prosperous lives through research oriented towards “problem-solving” based on the concept of developing manufacturing methods with reduced environmental impact.

Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University, was established in 2007 with the support from World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), to contribute to society through the creation of innovative materials. Since then, AIMR brought together international researchers in materials science and other fields to promote top-level research and conducted interdisciplinary research. In 2012, in order to discover universal principles common to different material systems, we started a mathematics-materials science collaboration and has built new academic platforms for materials science. Later, in 2017, AIMR was certified as one of the newly established WPI Academy institutes to accelerate and expand the international brain circulation.

In the future, we will continuously create materials that make a genuine contribution to society by reinforcing AIMR’s unique academic foundations as a WPI Academy member. For this purpose, AIMR newly establish in October 2022 the “Hydrogen Science GX Open Innovation Center”, to expand AIMR’s academic infrastructure to GX-related research in hydrogen science, and also to strengthen collaboration with domestic and international research institutions/industries.

We are research institution specializing in materials research in metals, organic or inorganic materials.

Our world is made up of various “substances” and in these “materials” the basis of our everyday lives can be found. Materials fall into two major categories such as organic/polymeric materials and inorganic materials, the latter in turn being divided into metals and ceramics.

From the Stone Ages – by way of the Industrial Revolution – up to today, the advance in materials has contributed to the development of humankind and now it is being focused upon as offering a solution for global problems.

NIMS specializes in carrying out research concerning these materials. Our materials research is managed with the next generation within perspective, in line with our theme, “Materials research for creating tomorrow”.

The Research and Services Division of Materials Data and Integrated System (MaDIS) was newly established in NIMS in April 2017 to introduce data-driven approaches into materials research. We are applying the data-driven approaches to various materials issues and have confirmed their effectiveness. We are also developing new data-driven methods. In addition, we are developing a materials data platform to support the data-driven materials research. Our goal is to revolutionize the way of materials research by integrating data science, computational science, theory, and experimentation, and to significantly accelerate the speed of the research and development (R&D)

The Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials (IINa) was established in April 2020 to specialize in two-dimensional nanomaterials, including nanosheet, surface and grain boundary. It is expected that the two-dimensional nanomaterials will bring innovation in the materials chemistry, and therefore, this institute focus on the two-dimensional nanomaterial research related to nanosheets and surfaces/grain boundaries from the basics to the specialization for practical application. The research institute has a comprehensive research facility to promote two-dimensional nanomaterial research, and a special synthesis process facility such as an explosion experiment facility and a bioelectrics research facility of Pulsed Power Science Laboratory. We will provide these facilities and equipment not only on campus but also to researchers at other universities and companies.