1.  Program Outline

 In fiscal year 2007, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) established the program “World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI).” This program provides priority support for proposals aimed at creating world premier international research centers staffed at their core with the world’s most leading researchers. By providing an excellent research environment, the centers should be “globally visible research centers,” able to attract top-level researchers from the world.

 This time, the WPI program will be expanded by three center projects aimed at creating world premier international research centers by focusing on sharp, cutting-edge research fields, with the perspective of spreading the system reform heretofore advanced under the program to other institutions.

2.  FY2012 Selections

 On 14 March, a call was issued for applications, to which 15 were submitted from 13 institutions by the 3 July deadline. From among them, the Program Committee chose three outstanding center proposals from three different institutions.