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Introduction of research priority and strategic areas
- Home
- Support for Research Activities
- Introduction of research priority and strategic areas

Table of Contents
Research Focus Areas
In 2017, when Tokyo Institute of Technology was designated as a designated national university, it objectively analyzed its research strengths and identified the following three research fields, which can be said to be the underlying strength of the university, as “priority areas,” and adopted a medium- to long-term research strategy of leading the world in these fields.
New Element Strategy
“Elemental strategy” is the research of substances and materials that aim to express useful functions by using common elements. This idea was born in Japan about 15 years ago, as it is one of the national strategies unique to Japan, which is a country that lacks natural resources and is built on producing excellent products. The Element Strategy Research Center (reorganized as the MDX Research Center for Element Strategy in 2022) was established as a nationwide base to promote this element strategy, and has discovered many remarkable new materials so far. These are the results of the ingenuity of “structure” on ordinary elements.
Recently, new methodologies have been rapidly adopted in materials research. It is a combination with information science and AI. As a result, we have seen the light that it will be possible for the first time to study complex materials such as grain boundaries and amorphous materials that could not be calculated until now. The “New Element Strategy” aims to create world-class materials by organically combining these new research methods with the accumulation of elemental strategies that have produced innovative materials by controlling their structure.
New Element Strategy-Related Initiatives
Institute of Materials and Information Sciences
Through an integrated master’s and doctoral education program, we aim to develop “complex human resources” who will advance original research on materials and information by linking materials and information and making full use of information science to think from multiple perspectives and bird’s-eye view. We will promote the development of human resources who will be responsible for the creation of new industries to build a sustainable society together with program managers belonging to companies and partner organizations such as the National Institute for Materials Science.
Organizations related to the New Element Strategy
MDX Research Center for Element Strategy
What society expects from materials is “function”. Functions and elements are connected through the “structure” of matter. Even if the constituent elements are the same, the functions can be greatly different depending on the ingenuity of the “structure”. This is because, even though the types of elements that can actually be used are limited to a few dozen, they can realize a wide variety of functions that society demands. What to set as an element of “structure” is the highlight of the researcher’s skill. Nanostructures, surfaces, interfaces, defects, and anomalous valence states are examples of this structural element. Over the past 20 years, vigorous research in nanoscience and nanotechnology has been carried out around the world, and many important developments have been made to date. Since the founding of the Center for Element Strategies, the Center for Element Strategy, the Center has developed a number of new materials, including the thin-film transistors of IGZOs, the semiconductors that enabled the world’s first practical application of OLED televisions, and catalysts that enable the synthesis of ammonia under mild conditions.
The most interesting thing about nanotechnology is its high potential to make things that were believed to be impossible possible. Therefore, the Element Strategy Initiative (ESI) is positioned as a practical endeavor in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The important thing is to find the unknown relationship between function and element. Renewing the old image of each element is the ultimate goal of our ESI. The Center is also conducting research aimed at this goal.
Integrated Energy Science
We will refine our renewable energy systems that utilize solid-state batteries and hydrogen energy, as well as innovative elemental and system technologies, and work to realize a carbon and material recycling society with a stable supply of energy and economic efficiency. By integrating these into integrated energy science, we will achieve carbon neutrality and strengthen our driving force toward a sustainable energy society.
Initiatives Related to Integrated Energy Science Strategy
Institute of Energy and Information Sciences
The Institute for Energy and Informatics aims to transform into a human-centered, sustainable energy society that is free from constraints on energy use, such as energy costs and CO₂ emissions, by using energy wisely through AI analysis of big data. For this reason, the “Excellence in Energy and Information Sciences Course” is smoothly implemented, and the purpose of this program is to cultivate “multi-scope energy excellence” who will master the pluralistic theory of energy and transform and design a new energy society through big data science and social conceptual capabilities. Students in the fields of energy and information sciences who are selected from across the school not only take a distinctive educational program as part of their studies, but also participate in industry-academia collaborative research and receive substantial financial support.
Organizations related to integrated energy science strategy
Institute for Zero Carbon Energy
Our goal is to contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society by building a carbon and material circulation system based on zero-carbon energy, and we will conduct research and development of technologies necessary to achieve this goal.
InfoSynergy Research and Education Consortium
The purpose of this consortium is to lead the transition to a low-carbon and decarbonized energy society through digitalization by making various uses of “big data science,” which integrates AI analysis and data science. We aim to realize an “Ambient Energy Society” in which new value and services are created through the use of big data science, and people can balance the environment and the economy without being aware of energy choices and environmental behavior. We will incorporate big data science into our nine research priority areas and promote research and education through industry-academia collaboration. In addition to domestic companies and public institutions, the world’s top universities are participating.
Digital Society/Device Systems
This research field is responsible for the development of a super-smart society (Society 5.0) that integrates hardware and software, including IoT, and the device infrastructure that is indispensable for the realization of a future society. We will continue to lead the way as a global base for digital social device systems by integrating these technologies that we have accumulated, such as semiconductor integrated circuits, sensor devices, communication devices that support millimeter waves, optical communications, next-generation mobile communications, and various IoT devices such as power devices, which are core components of power and power supply systems, as well as network systems and system control technologies for these devices.
Initiatives related to digital society and device system strategy
Institute of Excellence for Super Smart Society
Through an integrated master’s and doctoral degree program, we train intellectual professionals who can integrate not only physical space technology and cyberspace technology, but also cutting-edge science and technology such as quantum science and artificial intelligence.
Integrated Green-niX Research and Human Resource Development Center
With the aim of creating and transforming green-related markets, we have defined an index called “green contribution,” which will be new products and services with low power consumption and low environmental impact. Based on this, we will research semiconductor materials, devices, circuits, and systems, and establish an integrated R&D and human resource development scheme that enables value creation through integration technology, with the aim of achieving both the revival of the Japan industry and the preservation of the global environment.
Organizations related to digital society and device system strategy
Super Smart Society Promotion Consortium
In order to cultivate leaders who will support the coming super-smart society (Society 5.0), we established a next-generation social collaboration education and research platform that integrates human resource development and research and development through collaboration between industry, government, and academia.
Strategic Areas of Research
In addition to priority areas, we have identified “strategic areas” as fields that will be needed by society in the future, and in which we can expect sufficient research capabilities to promote them, and we have decided to plan various research projects and strategically implement research promotion in these fields throughout the university.
Holistic Life Science
It is a field that advances science and technology related to life sciences and biotechnology, thereby realizing a bio-driven society that is friendly to people and the earth, that is, a bio-first society. Based on the university’s strengths of mathematics and materials, we will work on the essential understanding of life phenomena, life information, and life on Earth, and aim to build a sustainable ecosystem and develop a new green revolution.
Holistic Life Science
Sustainable Social Infrastructure
This is a research field that aims to build a next-generation social infrastructure that supports the happiness of each individual with safety and security in the age of 100-year lifespans. Tokyo Tech aims to solve four global social issues – “Realization of a Resilient Society,” “Design of the Voice of the Earth,” “Realization of Smart Cities,” and “Innovation” – in order to realize next-generation social infrastructure. We will contribute to the sustainable development of human society through the social implementation of research results by combining the research capabilities of Tokyo Tech in the humanities and sciences with the knowledge and energy of companies and industries.
Sustainable Social Infrastructure
Cyber Physical and Social Systems (CPS2)
This is a research field that aims to create a system with new social value by highly linking and integrating the real world (physical space) and the information space (cyber space) in various units of society. In addition to the knowledge of the social sciences, we aim to realize real-world analysis, prediction, optimization, and control through the development of science and engineering based on the enormous data processing capacity represented by digital twins in recent years, and the development of new theories, data analysis/processing methods, sensing technologies (P to C) and actuation technologies (C to P) that are conscious of the real world.