Research

Research Centers

NII established 15 Research Centers in order to remove barriers between Research Divisions and respond quickly to critical social issues, creating a system where researchers with various areas of expertise can collaborate across disciplines to focus on exploring key research domains.

Services and Operations

Research and Development Center for Academic Networks

Develops and provides new services and features to enhance the operations and efficiency of the Science Information NETwork (SINET), a crucial backbone network of more than 1000 universities and research institutes in Japan.

Director: URUSHIDANI, Shigeo (Vice Director-General, NII;Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)
Vice Director: KURIMOTO, Takashi (Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)

Research Center for Knowledge Media and Content Science

Promotes cutting-edge research on the analysis and extraction of knowledge from research papers and other academic content, and carries out empirical R&D to encourage the distribution of academic knowledge.

Director: AIZAWA, Akiko(Vice Director-General,NII;Professor, Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division)

GRACE Center: Center for Global Research in Advanced Software Science and Engineering

Integrates research, practice, and education using collaborations between Japanese and overseas research institutions, as well as collaborations between industry and academia, with the goal of developing the software infrastructure of the twenty-first century, and also fosters the next generation of world-class researchers and engineers.

Director: HONIDEN, Shinichi
(Project Professor/ Professor Emeritus, NII)
Vice Director: ISHIKAWA, Fuyuki (Associate Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)

Research Center for Community Knowledge

Collects and analyzes the process of forming shared knowledge between humans, as well as that between humans and machines, carries out activities to promote the use of the outcome of such research, and conducts empirical R&D to encourage the next generation of information sharing.

Director: ARAI, Noriko (Professor, Information and Society Research Division)

Center for Cloud Research and Development

Promotes IT-based research and education by advancing joint R&D with researchers at universities and research institutes, in order to provide state-of-the-art scientific information infrastructures using cloud technologies on the Science Information NETwork (SINET).

Director: AIDA, Kento(Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)

Center for Dataset Sharing and Collaborative Research

Collects datasets that are useful for informatics research and makes them available to researchers, conducts R&D on building datasets and a platform for their use, and promotes collaborative research in informatics using shared datasets.

Director: OYAMA, Keizo(Project Professor/ Professor Emeritus, NII)

Center for Strategic Cyber Resilience Research and Development

Leveraging the knowledge acquired from building and operating information security infrastructure for the Science Information NETwork, we pursue research on technology development and strategies for enabling the utilization of robust cyberspace environments and collaborate with universities on the training of highly skilled professionals to support this work.

Director: TAKAKURA, Hiroki (Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)

Research Center for Open Science and Research Data Platform

Conducts joint international R&D on platforms for managing, publishing, and searching research data, which will serve to promote a paradigm shift in the way research is carried out towards open science, and deploys these platforms jointly with universities and research institutes in Japan to encourage their use.

Director: YAMAJI, Kazutsuna (Professor, Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division)
Vice Director: KOMIYAMA, Yusuke (Associate Professor, Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division)

Center for Research Data Ecosystem Development

With a focus on national research data infrastructure, promotes R&D directed at the development of a research data cosystem as a means to foster the sustainable management and utilization of research data.

Director: KUROHASHI, Sadao (Director-General, NII)
Vice Director: YASUURA, Hiroto (Vice Director-General, NII)

Major Research Projects

Global Research Center for Quantum Information Science

An international hub for cutting-edge research on quantum information science and technology, advancing the science of quantum information and exploring the potential of quantum information technologies. Also cultivates the development of international human resources who will lead medium- to long-term research projects focused on specific goals.

Director: NEMOTO, Kae (Project Professor, Principles of Informatics Research Division)

Global Research Center for Big Data Mathematics

Research base for JST ERATO's Kawarabayashi Large Graph Project. A world-class hub for research on big data mathematics focused on developing high-speed algorithms, conducting advanced research and human resource development.

Director: KAWARABAYASHI, Ken-ichi (Professor, Principles of Informatics Research Division)
Vice Director: YOSHIDA, Yuichi (Professor, Principles of Informatics Research Division)

Research Center for Mathematical Trust in Software and Systems

Research base for JST ERATO's HASUO Metamathematics for Systems Design Project. Aims to provide support to manufacturing, ranging from developing specifications for industrial products to their design, production, and maintenance, by incorporating the knowledge of formal methods from software engineering into manufacturing

Director: HASUO, Ichiro (Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)
Vice Director: ISHIKAWA, Yutaka (Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division)

Research Center for Medical Bigdata

Undertakes the construction of big data cloud platforms for medical imaging using the Science Information NETwork (SINET) built and operated by NII, and develops artificial intelligence (AI) that analyzes large collections of medical images to assist doctors with diagnosis.

Director: MORI, Kensaku (Visiting Professor, NII)
Vice Director: HARADA, Tatsuya (Visiting Professor, NII);
AIDA, Kento (General Manager, Cyber Science Infrastructure Development Department;
Professor, Information Systems Architecture Science Research Division);
SATOH, Shin'ichi (Professor, Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division)

Global Research Center for Synthetic Media

With a view to realizing an AI society focused on human beings, we promote research and development for generating synthetic media covering face, voice and various other modalities, detecting fake media, ensuring the media's reliability, and supporting decision-making.

Director: ECHIZEN, Isao (Director, NII; Professor, Information and Society Research Division)
Vice Director: YAMAGISHI,Junichi (Professor, Digital Content and Media Sciences Research Division)

Industry-Academia Collaboration

Center for Advanced Mobile Driven Research

Aims at the creation of an innovative next-generation common research data platform based on the accumulation of use cases and advanced application development by leveraging the high speed of a leading-edge scientific information network (SINET6) and a high-performance local 5G mobile environment.

Director: KUROHASHI, Sadao (Director-General, NII)
Vice Directors: YOSHIDA, Susumu (Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University), SUZUKI, Shigeki (President, YRP, Inc.)

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