Message from the Director
How do you strengthen the research capabilities of a university?
From a long-term perspective, steady support must be sought for researchers, including stable employment and continuous research funding. On the other hand, it is also important to ambitiously invest resources such as funds, human resources, and space in research fields that are yet unexplored, and to conduct frontier research in a flexible manner.
Tokyo Tech has long practiced this, and has already established world-leading research centers such as the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) and the MDX Research Center for Element Strategy. We will apply the methods developed there — methods for strengthening research capabilities and building global researcher networks — to other fields, and we will establish more world-class research centers focused on budding research areas, aiming for unbounded progress in Tokyo Tech research.
At the same time, for each and every researcher from around the world who is at the center of these systems and networks, we will provide comprehensive support, for their living environment included, so that they can concentrate on their research at Tokyo Tech and maximize their achievments. We would like to spread this support not only within IRFI, but also throughout the university.
We hope that you will share in our excitement about the future of IRFI.
Osamu Watanabe Director
International Research Frontiers Initiative