National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Since its establishment in April 2004, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), an inter-university research institute corporation (comprising of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the National Institute for Fusion Science, the National Institute for Basic Biology, the National Institute for Physiological Sciences and the Institute for Molecular Science) has been aiming to bring about further development of natural science. In order to achieve it, each inter-university research institute has been promoting cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research by further exploiting research fields of expertise. The National Institutes of Natural Sciences has also been actively working on cooperation and collaboration with universities and research institutes attached to universities, thereby exploring and cultivating novel research fields and problems in natural science, and also enhancing human resources in each field through measures such as education of graduate students, as a research center of natural science in Japan.
In particular, with respect to research, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences intends to improve its role and function by further promoting research undertaken by each institute. At the same time, taking advantage of forming a single corporation, researchers of the five institutes will collaborate to find some novel field(s) and/or to dig out some new problems in natural science. As a start, “Imaging Science” has been extracted as a common theme at present for the researchers in the five institutes to develop alliance activities among different fields of the institutes. Also, as an interdisciplinary research center of natural science, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences plans to further strengthen the collaboration between Japan and organizations in Europe, U.S. and Eastern Asian countries, to implement approaches to form international research centers in which outstanding researchers are organized on a global scale. More specifically, the Institutes has established the International Strategy Headquarter to carry out its international affairs. In this connection, the Institutes has already concluded agreements on international joint research with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the first step towards forming an international research center.
The National Institutes of Natural Sciences will continue to carry out its responsibility as an inter-university research organization by looking at the development of natural science research in Japan in some decades after. It will also aim to bring about further improvement as a base for transmitting the research results in the fields of natural science to the rest of the world.
We look forward to your continuous support towards the National Institutes of Natural Sciences.

Natural science that aimed to achieve wider and deeper understanding of nature caught up with development during the 20th century, and understanding of humans towards nature improved dramatically. According to the rapid progress in science, borders between various fields of natural science became versatile, and it is becoming increasingly important to make academic studies more comprehensive and create new academic fields.
On the other hand, it is necessary in the 21st century for science to cope with complex and a wide variety of tasks due to expanding human activities. Those who are engaged in natural science studies are expected to tackle these tasks with heightened awareness and contribute to constructing an affluent and steady society.
In a normal situation, development of academic studies is achieved based on unrestrained thinking and autonomy of researchers. Through mutual respect among researchers towards their creative studies and active exchange of opinions and cooperation beyond the border of academic fields, creation of new academic studies that can contribute to society becomes possible.
Based on this principle, this Charter is comprised with the aim of improving understanding of nature and making contributions to the development of society, through collaboration and cooperation among inter-university research institutes that are engaged in studies of various fields in natural science, such as space, matter, energy and life.