Concept of WPI Academy

The World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Program) was launched in 2007 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Over the past 10 years, the program has been highly successful in building top world-standard research centers with powerful research capacity and a high level of internationalization, centers that now boast wide global visibility.

In FY 2017, MEXT established the new WPI Academy to take the vanguard in internationalizing and further renovating Japan’s research environment, making it place that expands and accelerates the international circulation of the world’s best brains. The WPI centers that have achieved “world-premier status” will be the initial members of the WPI Academy. They may possibly be joined later by other Japanese research institutes that have amassed research results and created research environments of the very highest world standard. As it becomes operational, the WPI Academy will position Japan as a pole at the pinnacle of international researcher circulation.

Academy Director (AD), Academy Officers (AOs)

as of October 2022

AD/AO	Name	Position, Affiliation	Assigned center
AD	UKAWA Akira	Director, Center for World Premier International Research Center Initiative, JSPS	—
AO	OSADA Yoshihito	Senior Visiting Scientist, RIKEN	Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University
AO	NAKANO Toru	Emeritus Professor, Osaka University	Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Kyoto University
AO	MATSUSHIMA Kouji	Professor, Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science	Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC), Osaka University
AO	KATAYAMA-YOSHIDA Hiroshi	Emeritus Professor, Osaka University	International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science
AO	DOMEN Kazunari	University Professor, The University of Tokyo/Special Contract Professor, Research Initiative for Supra-Materials, Shinshu University	International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research(I2CNER), Kyushu University
AO	SANDA Ichiro	Professor Emeritus, Nagoya University	Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe(Kavli IPMU), The University of Tokyo
AO	MIYAMA Shoken	President, Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University	Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo Institute of Technology
AO	OSUMI Noriko	Vice President, Tohoku University	International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (IIIS), University of Tsukuba
AO	HAMACHI Itaru	Professor, Department of Synthetic Chemistry & Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University	Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), Nagoya University

Academy Working Group

With the assigned AO as its chair, an Academy working group including one overseas member for each center has been established under the Program Committee.

List of Academy Working Group Members(FY2020).

WPI Academy Members

The Center Selected in FY2007 and certified as a WPI Academy Member in FY2017

Host institution	Center name	Center Director	Outline of the Center
Tohoku University	Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR)	ORIMO Shin-ichi	Establish a World-Leading Research Center for Materials Science AIMR aims to contribute to society through actions as a world-leading research center for materials science and continuous challenges to research frontiers. To this end, the institute gathers excellent researchers in the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and mathematics and provides world-class research environment.
The University of Tokyo	Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)	OOGURI Hirosi	Cross-Disciplinary Research Center for Addressing the Origin and Evolution of the Universe Establishing a top-level research center visible worldwide for the most urgent issues of basic science such as dark energy, dark matter, and unified theories with a close collaboration of mathematics, physics and astronomy.
Kyoto University	Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)	KITAGAWA Susumu	Creating a new field of integrated cell-material science in the mesoscopic domain Our institute seeks to illuminate a chemical basis of cells, creating compounds to control processes in cells such as stem cells (materials for cell control) in addition to sparking cellular processes to create chemical materials (cell-inspired materials), to ultimately establish an integrated cell-material science.
Osaka University	Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC)	TAKEDA Kiyoshi	The pursue of fundamental immunology research and elucidation of immune diseases IFReC has selected excellent researchers from Japan and overseas in cutting-edge research areas, and has promoted globally competitive fundamental research. IFReC aims to overcome immune-related diseases by clarifying the whole picture of the immune system.
National Institute for Materials Science	International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA)	TANIGUCHI Takashi	Materials Nanoarchitectonics – a new paradigm of materials creation – MANA aims to develop new materials based on our own concept "nanoarchitectonics" through precise organization of well-designed nanomaterials at atomic/molecular scale. For such an interdisciplinary and pioneering challenge, international cooperation and training / fostering of next-generation leaders are essentially important to generate sustainable growth of related research in the future.

The Center Selected in FY2010 and certified as a WPI Academy Member in FY2020

Host institution	Center name	Center Director	Outline of the Center
Kyusyu University	International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research（I2CNER）	Petros SOFRONIS	Contribute to the creation of a sustainable and environmentally friendly society I2CNER's broad-based approach cuts across the boundaries of chemistry, physics, materials science, mechanics, geoscience, and biomimetics bridging multi-dimensional spatial and temporal scales for phenomena occurring at the interface between materials and hydrogen, oxygen, and CO2.

WPI Academy Proposals and Reports

The Center Selected in FY2007 and certified as a WPI Academy Member in FY2017

Host institution	Center name	Proposal	Activities Report (FY2017 – FY2019)
Tohoku University	Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR)	（Updated: June 19, 2019）
The University of Tokyo	Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)	（Updated: September 20, 2018）	The report is included into the Progress Report of the WPI Center for Final Evaluation
Kyoto University	Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
Osaka University	Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC)	（Updated: June 19, 2019）
National Institute for Materials Science	International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA)

The Center Selected in FY2010 and certified as a WPI Academy Member in FY2020

Host institution	Center name	Proposal	Report
Kyusyu University	International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research（I2CNER）