Recent years have seen fierce international competition to acquire the world's best brains. To sustain and raise the level of its science and technology in the middle of such competition, Japan must position itself within the global flow of intellectual mobility. To do so, it will be necessary to build research centers of a sufficiently high level of excellence to attract outstanding researchers to Japan from around the world.

 Recognizing this urgent need, in fiscal year 2007 our Ministry, MEXT, established the program “World Premier International Research Center Initiative(WPI).” It derives its impetus from the government's third S&T Basic Plan and the “Comprehensive Strategy for Fostering Innovation” formulated by the government's Council for Science and Technology Policy.

 In this project, intensive support of the government for the concept of creating a world-class research center with a core of high-level researchers, encourages self-sufficient such as the introduction of systemic reforms. Besides, the goal is to create a "visible center" that boasts of an excellent research environment and high research standards, where leading researchers from around the world gathers.
 This project requires research centers to achieve the following four missions: “Science,” “Fused Research,” “Globalization,” and “System Reform”. In order to achieve these missions, the Program Committee, which includes university presidents, former presidents, Nobel laureates, people in industry, and prominent foreign experts, reviews the program at the time of its selection and follow-up each year (to ascertain the state of project progress and recommend improvements when necessary).

Contacts

Basic Research Promotion Division, Research Promotion Bureau

  • +81-3-5253-4111(ex.4244), +81-3-6734-4248
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(Basic Research Promotion Division, Research Promotion Bureau)