Collaborative Research

Explore collaborative research with NIMS for your R&D advantage*

At NIMS, we believe in the power of collaboration to bring research findings to life. We partner with companies to leverage our cutting-edge technology and expertise for the practical application of research.

NIMS intellectual property policy

To ensure mutual benefits, all collaborative research with NIMS is governed by a collaborative research agreement structured around our intellectual property policy. Depending on the specific research project, we offer customized arrangements:

The collaborating company has non-exclusive, complimentary working to shared patents.

NIMS retains the right to license shared patents to third parties.

Costs associated with shared patents are divided equally between the collaborating company and NIMS.

Starting a collaborative research project

Outline procedure

1. Preliminary discussions
Engage with NIMS researchers to outline:

The research titles
Objectives and goals
Content and scope
Project timeline

2. Contract finalization
Our Industrial Collaboration Office will draft a collaborative research agreement that adheres to established guidelines for collaborative research. The draft will be finalized after thorough discussions.

Organizational collaborations: an overview

Beyond individual projects, NIMS fosters extensive and systematic collaborations in many fields of research, partnering with leading companies across the globe.

We work closely with our partners to identify future trends in their key business areas, preparing medium to long-term research and development roadmaps for fundamental research. These roadmaps are continuously updated during a collaboration to keep ahead of the evolving industry landscape.

■Candidates for research collaboration
We seek partnerships with companies that:
1. Have a clearly defined focus and are committed to strategic investment in forward-looking research.
2. Understand, or wish to explore with NIMS, market needs and technology trends 5-10 years into the future.
3. Have a significant market share in their sectors, or wish to achieve a significant share through collaboration with NIMS.

Center of Excellence

We enter into an agreement for establishing the industrial collaboration center with a partner. and then facilitate strategic and sustainable inter-organization collaboration with long-term roadmaps through the establishment of Center of Excellence.

Open platform

Our open platform is a system that encourages cross-company collaboration to tackle their common challenges, sharing insights and solutions.

History of collaborations

Date held		Event name/seminar name
2006	June	Launch of the Rolls-Royce Centre of Excellence for Aerospace Materials at NIMS	Industry Collaboration Centers	Wound up in 2011
2008	July	Opening of the NIMS-TOYOTA Center of Excellence for Sustainable Mobility	Industry Collaboration Centers	Rebranded as TOYOTA-NIMS Collaboration Center in April 2019
2010	September	Establishment of the Saint-Gobain CNRS NIMS International Collaboration Center	Industrial Collaboration Center	became the Saint-Gobain CNRS NIMS International Collaboration Center in January 2019
2013	June	Establishment of the NIMS-DENKA Center of Excellence for Next Generation Materials	Industrial Collaboration Center
	July	Establishment of LG-NIMS Center of Excellence for Materials Science	Industrial Collaboration Center	Wound up in June 2022
2015	January	Establishment of the Next-Generation Fluorescent Material Innovation Center (ICAP)	Industrial Collaboration Center
	January	Establishment of the Biocompatible Material Development Center	Field Collaboration Cente
	October	Establishment of the JEOL-NIMS Center of Excellence for Analytical Technology	Collaboration Laboratory	Wound up in March 2022
	December	Establishment of the Mitsubishi Materials-NIMS Center of Excellence for Materials Informatics Research	Industrial Collaboration Center
	December 2015	Establishment of the SAIT-NIMS Innovation Center	Industrial Collaboration Center
2016	April	Establishment of the MSS Development Center	Field Collaboration Center
	July	Establishment of the Hitachi Metals-NIMS Center of Excellence for Next-generation Materials	Industrial Collaboration Center	Wound up in March 2021
	November	Establishment of the Panasonic-NIMS Center of Excellence for Advanced Functional Materials	Industrial Collaboration Center	Wound up in March 2022
2017	June	Establishment of the Chemical MOP	Open Platform	Wound up in March 2022
2017	June	Establishment of the Iron and Steel MOP	Open Platform	Wound up in March 2021
2018	April	Establishment of the SoftBank-NIMS Advanced Technologies Development Center	Industrial Collaboration Center
	June	Establishment of the CAMECA-NIMS 3DAP Laboratory	Collaboration Lab	Wound up in May 2022
	July	Establishment of the L'ORÉAL-NIMS Materials Innovation Center for Science and Beauty	Industrial Collaboration Center
2019	January	Establishment of the NIMS-IHI Center of Excellence for Next-generation Structural Materials	Industrial Collaboration Center	Wound up in March 2021
2020	May	Establishment of the Materials Open Platform for All Solid-State Battery	Open Platform	Wound up in March 2021
	June	Establishment of the Mitsubishi Materials-NIMS Center of Excellence for Materials Informatics Research	Industrial Collaboration Center
2021	April	Establishment of the Materials Open Platform for Pharmaceutical Science	Open Platform
2022	April	Establishment of the Materials Open Platform for Permanent Magnet	Open Platform
2023	April	Establishment of the Materials Open Platform for Advanced Phosphor	Open Platform
	April	Establishment of the WD-NIMS Center for Storage Frontier	Industrial Collaboration Center
	April	Establishment of the Materials Open Platform for Structural Materials-DX	Open Platform

If you would you like to evaluate samples of our research materials before research collaboration, a material evaluation agreement can facilitate this.

For further information or to start to discuss any type of collaboration, please use our inquiry form.

Inquiries regarding joint research (other corporate collaborations)

Please contact us using the form below.

For Businesses Considering Collaboration or Use of Our Research Results