About IIS
About IIS
About IIS
What is IIS?

Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo,
is a research institute covering almost all the areas of engineering disciplines.
It is mainly located in Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo.
Each of more than 120 faculty members – professors, associate professors and lecturers –
has his/her own laboratory and more than 1,000 researchers come to IIS from inside and outside of Japan.
They are carrying out various research – from fundamental research to applications – which opens future life.

Laboratories belong to one of 5 Research Departments.
About half of them belong also to Research Centers, Collaborative Research Centers or Platforms.
Some laboratories join and form a research group,
a study group or a research unit with a common purpose of research
and sometimes they develop into research centers which can have their own budget and space.

The research field of IIS is very multidisciplinary and
covers almost all the areas of engineering disciplines
from micro and nano scales such as quantum levels to large scales such as the global level and space.
IIS is one of the largest university-attached research institutions in Japan.

Organization

More than 120 Creative Research Laboratories

One of the features of IIS is that each faculty member, professors, associate professors and lecturers, leads one laboratory. Faculty members choose a research theme freely by their judgment and carry out research by their own way. This system plays an important role in the promotion and development of creative research links:

Group Research Collaboration and Flexible Cooperation

Group Research, in which multiple laboratories of researchers in similar fields work together voluntarily, is actively promoted in IIS. Research Centers and Collaborative Research Centers are structured from research groups. The flexible organization of the research groups facilitates faster and more dynamic expansion and development of research. Big research projects are accepted as Collaborative Research Center and there is a supporting system of research space and others.

Collaboration with Graduate Schools, Other Departments and Organizations

IIS cooperates with the University of Tokyo's Graduate Schools including Engineering, Science, Arts and Sciences, Frontier Science, Information Science and Technology, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, and related Undergraduate Schools, and has a strong link with Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST) located in the same campus. Cooperative activities are conducted at IIS together with other domestic and overseas organizations, including Tokyo City University, National Institute of Informatics, Public Works Research Institute, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, and so forth.

2007

National Institute of Informatics

2010

Tokyo City University

2012

Public Works Research Institute

2013

Foundation for Computational Science

2013

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, National Institute of Informatics

2014

Railway Technical Research Institute

2014

Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo

2015

Iwate Prefecture, Kamaishi City Iwate Prefecture

2015

Mombetsu City, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation

2017

Rikuzentakata City Iwate Prefecture, School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

2018

Akita University

2018

National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology

2018

Wakayama City Wakayama Prefecture

2018

Rikuzentakata City Iwate Prefecture

2019

Hiratsuka City Kanagawa Prefecture

2019

Chiba City Chiba Prefecture, Suginami City Tokyo Metropolitan, Kokubunji City Tokyo Metropolitan, Yurihonjo City Akita Prefecture, Noshiro City Akita Prefecture, Kimotsuki Town Kimotsuki District Kagoshima Prefecture

2019

Susono City Shizuoka Prefecture

2019

Nanto City Toyama Prefecture

2019

Tokushima Prefecture

2020

Kimotsuki Town Kagoshima Prefecture

2021

Aichi Steel Corporation, Kashiwa City, Urban Design Center Kashiwa-no-ha [UDCK], IHI Corporation, KOITO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, LTD., Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd., Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., Graduate School of Frontier Sciences The University of Tokyo, Mobility Innovation Collaborative Research Organization,The University of Tokyo(UTmobI), TOBU BUS EAST CO., LTD., PACIFIC CONSULTANTS CO., LTD., BOLDLY Inc., Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Auto Leasing Corporation  

Research Management Office (RMO) Supporting Research Activities

In order to execute smoothly the planning and communication of research and management of IIS, RMO was established ahead of other faculties and institutions in April 2004. RMO supports the education and research activities of the faculty, such as planning research strategies, procuring external funds, and promoting government-industry-academia collaborations. RMO also acts as a coordinator between the faculty and administrators for activity evaluations, education and research publicity, intellectual property strategy, promoting international cooperation, etc. Since 2014 a research administrator (URA) was distributed in RMO and RMO tries more actively to acquire external funds and to promote international collaboration, etc.

Unique Research Funds System

Research costs in IIS are covered by the Operational Expenses Subsidy provided by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and various competition-based subsidies including Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, collaborative research with the private sector, and donations from industry. A fixed portion of these funds is distributed to early-stage promising research activities based on internal competition and the discretion of IIS director general.

Industrial Collaboration

Applied Research in Cutting-Edge Fields

IIS conducts not only research on basic engineering but also research on applied technology in the most advanced fields. Cooperative research by a consortium with Boeing and several Japanese companies has already begun developing airframe production technology and achieved research results on titanium cutting technology. Research in IIS concerns the most advanced technologies which are sometimes close to everyday life, and can be useful in tomorrow’s world. IIS is very active in cooperation with industry. All IIS researchers are welcoming contacts from researchers and engineers in companies. From such contacts collaborative research can be started.

TLO as a Mediator between Industry and Academia

FPIS-TLO is a government-recognized organization established in the Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Science (FPIS). TLO is a mediator operated as a platform to make academic research results visible into patents and transferring new knowledge and skills obtained through researches to industrial applications. It is a central organization for cooperation with industry as a promotor of innovation eco-system which creates new industries from research, makes research fund returning a part of profit from new industries, and activates academic research further.

International Activities

International Exchange Activities

Many foreign researchers are working in IIS. IIS has a lot of research agreements with foreign organizations. Good examples of international cooperation of IIS is research of LIMMS/CNRS-IIS (UMI2820) International Collaborative Research Center with French CNRS.