HISTORY

Our history from NRIM and NIRIM to NIMS

NIMS was merged from two National Research Institutes in April, 2001, and began
as an Independent Administrative Institution (IAI). Since April, 2015, the IAI system
has been reestablished as the system of the National Research and Development
Agency. You can see the introduction from the National Research Institute age to the
present in the chronology on this page.
Chronology
1956
National Research Institute for Metals (NRIM) established under auspices of the
former Science and Technology Agency.
1966
National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM) established under
auspices of the former Science and Technology Agency.
1972
NIRIM becomes the first national research institute to be relocated to Tsukuba.
1979
NRIM opens Tsukuba Office, three research departments relocated.
1995
NRIM relocation to Tsukuba completed.
2001
Merger of NRIM and NIRIM in April, becoming an Independent Administrative
Institution called National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).
First Mid-Term program started.
2002
Three research centers and one research station opened in April.

2003
Nanotechnology Support Project Center established in June.

International Center for Young Scientist (ICYS) program launched in

September.
2006
Second Five-Year Plan started
 20 research centers, two laboratories and Department of Materials
Infrastructure were reorganized in April.
The Rolls-Royce Centre of Excellence for Aerospace Materials established in
June.
2007
NIMS Center for Nanotechnology Support Network and Nanotechnology
Innovation Center newly established in April.
MANA (International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics) established as
one of worlds top five materials research organizations (WPI centers) in
October.
2008
"Open Research Institute" program started.

NIMS-TOYOTA Materials Center of Excellence for Sustainable Mobility

established in July.
ICYS reorganized as the new "International Center for Young Scientists".

2009
New project has started.
Rebuilding organization in May.

Global Research Center for Environment and Energy based on Nanomaterials

Science (GREEN) established in November.
2010
NIMS Office of ICNSEE at EMPA established in July.

NIMS Saint-Gobain Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials established in

September.
Center of Materials Research for Low Carbon Emission in December.

Tsukuba Innovation Arena (TIA) Promotion Office in December.

2011
Third Five-Year Plan started
3 research division and 1 research center (total 37 units) were reorganized in
April.

TU-NIMS Joint Research Center (TU: Tianjin University) established in

September.
2012
 Construction of New Research Complex Complete
"NanoGREEN/WPI-MANA Bldg." at the Namiki Site
Research Center for TIA Nano-Green Open Innovation established in April.

Elements Strategy Initiative Center for Magnetic Materials (ESICMM)

established in August.
Center for Nanotechnology Platform established in August.

Promotion Office for Microstructural Characterization Platform established in

August.
NU-NIMS Joint Research Center (NU: Northwestern University) established in
September.
2013
NIMS-DENKA Center of Excellence for Next Generation Materials established
in June.
NIMS Open Innovation Center established in June.

LG-NIMS Center of Excellence for Materials Science established in July.

Center of Strategic Materials Alliance for Research and Technology: SMART

Center established in July.
HONDA-NIMS Center of Excellence for Advanced Functionality Materials
established in October.
2014
Magnetic and Spintronic Materials Center established in April.

GIANT-NIMS Collaborative Research Center established in September.

Research Center for Structural Materials (RCSM) established in October.

Tsukuba Open Plaza for Advanced Structural Materials (TOPAS) established in

October.
2015
Innovation Center for Advanced Phosphors established in January.

Construction of New Research Complex Complete "The Advanced Structural

Materials Bldg." at the Sengen Site in March.
The Independent Administrative Institution(IAI) system reestablished as the
system of the National Research and Development Agency in April.
Center for Materials Research by Information Integration (cMi 2) established in
July.
2016
Fourth Seven-Year Plan started

ORGANIZATION
Organization name National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)
Objective Carrying out fundamental research and generic/infrastructural technology
research and development in the field of materials science, and with imporoving the
level of materials science and technology.
Established
July, 1956
Established the National Research Institute for Metals (NRIM)
April, 1966
Established the National Institute in Inorganic Materials (NIRIM)
April, 2001
Merged to National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS)
April, 2015
The Independent Administrative Institution(IAI) system reestablished as the system
of the National Research and Development Agency.
See details in "History"
Location
(Sites)[Tsukuba]
Sengen-site:
1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0047, JAPAN
Namiki-site:
1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, JAPAN
Sakura-site:
3-13 Sakura, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0003, JAPAN
[Hyogo]
Nishiharima-site:
1-1-1, Kouto, Sayo-cho, Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5198, JAPAN
See details in "Location (sites)"Executive
President
Kazuhito HASHIMOTO

Executive Vice President:

Yuko NAGANO

Daisuke FUJITA

Yasuo KOIDE

Auditor:
Takahiro FUJITA (Full-time)

Chihiro KANAI (Part-time)

Director of Administration:
Hiroyuki TANZAWA

Eiji MUROMACHI

Naoki KISHIMOTO

Special Advisor to the President:

Kohei UOSAKI

Kenjiro MIYANO

See details in "Executive"Major operationsFundamental research and generic /

infrastructural technology research and development.
See details in "Activities"Annual BudgetAbout 22.3 billion yen (Year ended 31 March
2016)
See details in "Settlement & Workforce Report"Workforce1,493 (As of April 1st,
2016)
See details in "Settlement & Workforce Report"Research
Research fields
Materials for Energy and Environment

Nanoscale Materials

Advanced Key Technologies

Reseach Center
Research Center for Functional Materials
 Center for Green Research on Energy and Environmental Materials

Research Center for Magnetic and Spintronic Materials

Research Center for Structural Materials(RCSM)

MANA (WPI International center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics)

Research Center for Advanced Measurement and Characterization

Center for Materials Research by Information Integration

Global Research Center for Environmental & Energy based on Nanomaterials

Science
Elements Strategy Initiative Center for Magnetic Materials

NIMS-TOYOTA Materials Center of Excellence for Sustainable

Mobility (Japanese version only)

MISSION/GOAL

All things necessary to our lives such as lighting, roads, bridges, buildings,
vehicles and airplanes are made of materials. Research on materials has
contributed to the prosperity of humankind in many ways. NIMS is Japans sole
public research institute specialized in materials science. We have created a number
of materials that made a global impact. Our mission is to pave the way for a better
future for humankind by solving issues in environment, energy, medicine, and
infrastructure, focusing on advanced research and development of innovative
materials including metals, ceramics, polymers and optical materials.
Sustainable social construction with the nanotech-driven materials research
NIMS' policy, mission and vision of the future grounded in the perspective of
building a sustainable infrastructure.
Basic Policy
NIMS is Japan's sole National Research and Development Agency specializing in
materials science. NIMS is charged with basic research and development of
materials science, and to advance the level of expertise in the field.

Research Policy
To build a sustainable society, NIMS has conducted research in order to produce new
materials that uses the ultimate technology, known as Nanotechnology this being
a technology enabling research concerning atoms/molecules in the materials
science field. We also conduct research that realizes higher functions for materials.

Related File / Link

Mission
To fulfill our mission, NIMS has promoted research that is at the leading
edge of the worlds materials science and has covered materials
encompassing not only metals or ceramics but also organic materials and
biomaterials.
Activities related thereto has led to the development of a new field that uses
Nanotechnology and of new materials that have resulted in innovations.
Fundamental research and generic / infrastructural technology
research and development
Dissemination of research results and promotion of their
applications
Shared use of NIMS facilities and equipment

Training of researchers and engineers

Also, we have led to entire materials science as a core international organization

promoting technology transfer that uses our research results, shared facilities and
equipment, in addition to encouraging human resource development.

Vision
NIMS has the stated materials strategy extending over the mid- and long-
term perspective, and we will go forward with the following objectives in
mind for the next 20 years.
Exploring New Research Fields
Many innovative research work such as those related to carbon nanotube or
fullerene have resulted from what researchers call Serendipity*1 during the
original research process. NIMS has promoted such original research process and
brought forth a new research field that brings together organic materials,
biomatters, ceramics and metals while opening up the materials science area
covering nanoscale compounds as exemplified by the transistor, the
superlattice and the tunnel magnetoresistance among others.
*1: Being able to discover valuable things by accident when looking for something
else

Further enhancement of a strong research field

NIMS has conducted further enhancement of an already strong research field that
has accumulated skills under stable, long-term perspectives. For example, we have
promoted the development of new materials based on fundamental and basic
research as well as carrying out maintenance and sharing of the worlds most
advanced research equipment owned by NIMS. Furthermore, we have developed
and applied cutting-edge Nanotechnology.

STATEMENTS
Since its foundation in 2001, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) had
made various efforts toward strengthening its research capability and
internationalization under the direction of its first President, Prof. Teruo Kishi, and
second President, Prof. Sukekatsu Ushioda. Starting in 2016, NIMS will implement
the fourth term of its seven-year plan. In addition to the existing goals of further
strengthening its research capability and international competitiveness, NIMS is also
accelerating to transfer its research achievements to the society, which I, as a third
President of NIMS, consider a central goal.
Today, social expectations for science and technology are greater than ever, and the
government considers the promotion of science and technology to be one of its
paramount policies. As many people agree, Japans industry is leading the world in
the development of new materials and functional materials, and Japans materials
research that supports the industry is also world-class. Under such circumstances,
expectations are high for NIMS to lead advanced materials research and play an
active role in providing a foundation for strengthening the R&D competitiveness of
Japan.
To meet these expectations, we intend to fundamentally enhance our mediating
function, aiming to accelerate the return of research accomplishments to society.
Under the principle that the true value of materials is in their use, we will continue
to focus on building a close relationship with the industrial sector. Furthermore, I
strongly encourage researchers at NIMS to be actively involved in the application of
their research results to society in addition to their research engagement. This
approach is also important in terms of providing researchers with an opportunity to
gain new research insights. We will make continuous efforts to transfer our results
to the industrial sector for use, and to become a hub to facilitate product R&D in
academia and the industrial sector, so that NIMS can strengthen the (research
capability) of the entire nation.
We will also continue to collaborate with organizations specialized in different fields.
In particular, promotion of joint research with the information and communications
technology (ICT) sector is an urgent issue, as is conformity with the Japanese
governments fifth science and technology basic plan starting this year, which
states to strongly undertake a series of initiatives to realize the future vision of
super-smart society (Society 5.0), which is an elaborate fusion of cyberspace and
physical space (the real world). NIMS founded the Center for Materials Research by
Information Integration where initiatives have already been taken to fuse materials
research with data science. As for future plans, through various activities, we intend
to fuse materials research with ICT, thereby creating new research fields and
industries.
Engaging in these endeavors, I hope that NIMS will further grow as an organization
contributing to Japan and the international community. We would appreciate your
support.