Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

WPI ACADEMY

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.

WPI Academy Members

Tohoku University Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR)
The University of Tokyo Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU)
Kyoto University Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
Osaka University Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC)
National Institute for Materials Science Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA)
Kyushu University International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I²CNER)
University of Tsukuba International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (IIIS)
Tokyo Institute of Technology Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI)
Nagoya University Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM)

For more information on WPI Academy, please see Selected Projects 

Academy Director(AD), Academy Officers(AOs)

as of May 2024
AD/AO Name Position, Affiliation Assigned center
AD Director, Center for World Premier International Research Center Initiative, JSPS
AO Deputy Executive Director (Research Strategy Advisor), RIKEN Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University
AO Emeritus Professor, Osaka University Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Kyoto University
AO Professor, Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC), Osaka University
AO Emeritus Professor, Osaka University Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science(NIMS)
AO 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 Professor/Vice President, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe(Kavli IPMU), The University of Tokyo
AO President, Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo Institute of Technology
AO Vice President, Tohoku University International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (IIIS), University of Tsukuba
AO 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.