AIST consists of a research implementation section, which comprises the heart of research and development, a research related section which serves as the interface between AIST and external organizations and contributes to effective / efficient research and development, and a management section responsible for research and development management operations.

The Tsukuba central research base, research operations located in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Chubu, Kansai, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu, and the newly implemented Tokyo Waterfront research base, allows AIST to operate a nationwide research-and-development network.

Our research management and research related sections have established, under the top-down management of the president of the board, a "Planning Headquarters" to serve as a controller of the whole corporation, a "Collaboration Department" to vigorously promote research exchange with external organizations, a "Technology Information Department" to propose national industrial technical strategies, based on leading-edge technical and research-and-development trends, an "International Affairs Department" to engage in international developments such as research collaboration and the establishment / operation of overseas bases, and a "Public Relations Department" to serve as the center for the dispatch and diffusion of research results. A self-sustaining organization has been established, which meets domestic and international expectations through research planning, implementation and diffusion relevant to industrial technology.

In order to respond precisely to the particularities of the various research fields, research missions, diversity of research-and-development phases, etc., the Research Implementation Department, which forms the core of the research institute, has set up various kinds of research organizations.

Research Center
The Research Center promotes pioneering and strategic projects by giving priority in investing research resources such as budget and human resources. The Research Center impacts the industrial world, academic circles and society, and has clear missions. The Research Center, as a mobile organization established for a specified period of time, will be operated by top-down management.
Moreover, talented people, with leadership in their fields, shall be appointed to the Center from inside and outside the country.

Research Institute
In order to carry out its tasks and materialize mid & long-term strategies, the Research Institute makes it a rule to set research themes from the bottom up based on each researcher's proposition, and is operated with a certain continuance. As well as being positioned as a place to develop technical potential, the Research Institute is also organized from the standpoint of the exhibition of organization ability by clarifying tasks to meet needs and displaying a sense of technical affinity, and furthermore, from the standpoint of new technology field developments by a fusion of research fields.

Special Division
From the viewpoint of aiming at field fusion-like new research development utilizing large-scale industrial research accumulated in the Kansai region, the Special Division is placed as an experimental organization to enable research and development activities in various phases – from basic research through to the practical application of research, all to be carried out in a unifying and mobile way.

Research Initiative
The Research Initiative is positioned as a research unit to promote research projects, with mobility, for a specified period of time, in relation to themes with a high possibility of interfiled fusion and to themes concerning sudden administrative needs.