Contributing to Regional Revitalization - For Creation of Regional Innovation -

As a core research facility AIST Tsukuba conducts research in the six areas and serves as an international open innovation hub working in close collaboration with the private sector and domestic and overseas universities and research institutions. We also train young researchers through the Innovation School program, disseminate research results to industries and research institutions through presentations at the Science Square and the Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Salon, and transfer research results through collaborative research and technical consultations. Through these activities we are providing technology-based solutions to problems of society and industry from both the regional and global perspectives.

AIST Hokkaido conducts research focusing on biomanufacturing (biotechnology-based material production technology), including drug development using the world's first closed-type transgenic plant production system ("plant factory"), and transfers the results of this research to industry. AIST Hokkaido is collaborating with the agriculture, forestry, and fishery industries and the food industry, which are the major industries in Hokkaido, to contribute to the development of a new industrial infrastructure based on biomanufacturing.

In the Tohoku Center, studies for integration of the technologies of chemical reactions, processes, and materials are conducted to contribute to the reduction of environmental burdens from chemical and manufacturing industries, and these studies can lead innovations in the industries. We are transferring the results of these research activities to the industries and also supporting creation of new industrial fundamentals and reconstruction from the earthquake disaster by providing environmentally benign technologies and value-adding technologies to local resources.

AIST Tokyo Waterfront promotes cutting-edge research and development and aims at innovation in human life, social system and services, focusing on fusion of bio and information technologies, such as bioinformatics, postgenome sequence, digitization of human functions and behaviors, interaction of information systems between men and social systems, etc. Located in Tokyo, public-private-partnership through various collaborations, technology transfer, fostering of young researchers, outreach activities, etc. are performed proactively.

As a multidisciplinary research and development facility for material manufacturing focusing on ceramics and metals, AIST Chubu conducts R&D of manufacturing technologies to produce various materials and devices, particularly those expected to reduce energy and resource consumption, in order to promote green innovation. Through these activities, we are contributing to the development of a next-generation industrial infrastructure in collaboration with industries, universities, and public research institutions in the Chubu region, Japan's major industrial area.

AIST Kansai develops greening technologies, which provide environmental suitability and sustainability of society, for electro-products such as secondary batteries made with the high industrial potential of the Kansai region. We focus our R&D also on collaboration of engineering and medicine for the development of healthcare and medical equipments based on biotechnology. We focus on system verification and training of software engineers in collaboration with industry to make Kansai a major center for the embedded system industry.

AIST Chugoku conducts research and development toward a sustainable society, with an emphasis on the biomass conversion technologies to produce chemicals, materials, and biofuels from wood-based biomass resources abundant in the Chugoku region. We have been transferring the technologies obtained to local businesses, and training biomass specialists from this and other regions of Japan, as well as Asian and other countries, in order to contribute to the development of a new industrial infrastructure that can form the basis of a recycling-based society.

AIST Shikoku conducts research on predictive disease diagnosis based on the evaluation of physical conditions, and on technologies to eliminate and detoxify health risk factors in daily life and the environment. We are providing information and proposals on "product manufacturing for health" to ensure that research results obtained by combining leading-edge biotechnology, materials technology, and system development technology are used by local industries to help them enter new industrial areas and revitalize the Shikoku region.

AIST Kyushu is engaged in research focusing on production measurement technologies to solve measurement problems at production sites, and also on establishment of the safety technology of hydrogen utilization. We are pursuing collaborations with industries on evaluation of long-term reliabilities of photovoltaics, and also with manufacturers, particularly in the semiconductor industry. We are also serving as a focal point for collaboration between all AIST researchers and companies, universities, and public research institutions in Kyushu.