Role of Center for Novel Science Initiatives (CNSI)

Envisage Natural Science Research 20 Years Ahead

Natural science was born from the curiosity that we wanted to understand the wide range of natural phenomena such as the universe, matter, energy, and life, and to clarify their essence. The National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) is an inter-university research institute corporation, consisting of five research institutes: 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. NINS, taking advantage of the characteristics and strength of the constituting institutes, actively promotes academic research activities as an inter-university research institute. NINS is expected not only to advance cutting-edge research on essential topics, but also to play a central role to organize the research core for future academic research areas. To accomplish the role, we opened the Center for Novel Science Initiative (CNSI) in April 2009. In collaboration with researchers in natural science across the country, we are cultivating research areas that will become the goals of natural science research in 20 or 50 years, and are promoting to organize new academic communities for the future areas.