Summary
As the only institute in Japan that bears the name of “industrial science”
SANKEN was established in 1939 at Osaka Imperial University, the predecessor of the present Osaka University, in response to the strong desire by the business community in Osaka, Japan, to establish a research institute in Osaka on "the fundamentals and applications of natural science necessary for industry.
The purpose of our institute is to "research the basic scientific principles and their applications in special matters related to natural science that are necessary for industry.
We have grown into the largest comprehensive research institute of science and engineering at Osaka University through numerous reorganizations and expansions of research fields as we strive to become the research facility that we should be.
As the only research institute in Japan that bears the name of "industrial science," the Institute actively collaborates with industry and actively trains human resources that are useful to industry, and as a member of Osaka University, it maintains a close relationship with each graduate school and continues to grow with the aim of contributing to high-level researcher education.
Established in response to strong desire from business community in OSAKA
Solidifying the foundation as a comprehensive engineering research institute
Developed into one of the leading science and engineering laboratories in Japan
Expanding research fields to create new science
Growing into a research center with strong university and business partnerships
SANKEN will continue to advance on its path of daily development as Japan's leading comprehensive science and engineering research institute, as the core of a nationwide network, and as a flagship of new industry-academia collaboration.
History
- 1930
- Osaka's business community requests the establishment of a major research institute for science and engineering. (Osaka Industrial Science and Technology Research Institute Association established)
- 1938
- Congress passes budget for establishment of the Institute of Industrial Science and Technology at Osaka Imperial University (Supporting organization, the Industrial Science Research Association established)
- 1939
- ISIR was founded (first director: Riko MAJIMA). A new building was constructed in Sakai City, OSAKA, with 3 research departments (Electronics and Information Science, Metallic and Inorganic Materials, and Biological and Organic Chemistry) .
- 1951
- The Institute of Acoustic Science, Osaka University was merged. (It continued to exist in Hirakata City until March 1968)
- 1958
- Annex radiation laboratory was established. (1st director: Tsunezaburo ASADA)
- 1968
- Moved to the current location (Ibaraki City, OSAKA) based on the Osaka University integration plan.
- 1975
- Establishment of the High-Pressure Synthesis Center for Materials (10-year term)
- 1977
- Materials Analysis Center established.
- 1982
- The Technology Division was established. This was the first time that a university-affiliated research institute in Japan had established such a department, in accordance with a partial revision of the Enforcement Regulations of the Law for Establishment of National Schools.
- 1985
- Establishment of the Research Center for Highly Functional and Extreme Materials (10-year term)
- 1995
- Reorganized into a research institute with 6 major divisions consisting of 24 research fields and 3 attached facilities: Materials Analysis Center, Higher Intermaterials Center, and Radiation Laboratory
- 2001
- Completion of the second research building
- 2002
- The Industrial Science and Nanotechnology Center was established. This is a reorganization and expansion of the Radiation Laboratory and the Higher Intermaterials Center (10-year term). Our institute was selected as a 21st Century COE Program center.
- 2003
- Construction of the Nanotechnology Research Complex was completed. The Osaka University Complex Nanofoundry was established. With the cooperation of the Department of Nuclear Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, the 21st Century COE Program that is globalized by establishing branches in Korea, France, and the U.S.A.
- 2005
- The Research Center for Basic Material Technology for New Industry Creation was established as the first collaborative project among university-affiliated research institutes after the incorporation of national universities. To promote industry-academia collaboration, the New Industry Creation Research Division was established, and in 2006, the Industry-Academia Collaboration Office (now the Strategy Office) was established.
- 2009
- In order to make collaborative research even more convenient, the center underwent its first major reorganization in 14 years. Reorganized into three major research divisions: Research Division 1 (Information and Quantum Science), Research Division 2 (Materials and Beam Science), and Research Division 3 (Biological and Molecular Science), and expanded the Industrial Science and Nanotechnology Center to six specialized research fields. The Center for the Promotion of Cooperative Education in Industrial Sciences and the International Collaboration Research Center were newly established, and the Center for Materials Analysis and the Electron Microscope Laboratory were transformed into the Comprehensive Analysis Center, which also includes analysis of information and living organisms, and made independent as the Quantum Beam Science Research Facility.
- 2010
- Construction of the ISIR Incubation Building was completed and Osaka University's first on-campus corporate research park was established. Japan's first nationwide networked "Joint Research Center for Materials and Devices" was established by five university-affiliated research institutes, with ISIR as the center's headquarters, and an alliance among the affiliated research institutes was launched.
- 2011
- We concluded a research-collaboration agreement with Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum vzw (imec), one of the world’s largest nanotechnology research institute and “imec office” was opened at ISIR.
- 2013
- Osaka University has been selected as one of the core universities of the MEXT program, COI STREAM , and ISIR will play a centeral role of the Osaka Univ.
- 2016
- Dynamic Alliance for Open Innovation Bridging Human, Environment and Materials including ISIR (Osaka Univ.), RIES (Hokkaido Univ.), IMRAM (Tohoku Univ.), CRL (TIT) and IMCE (Kyusyu Univ.) was established. ISIR is the headquarters of this nation-wide 5 institutes network.
- 2017
- We established “ISIR imec center”in imec of Belgium to promote the global cooperation network.
- 2019
- The Industrial Science AI Center, consisting of AI implementation research fields and Big Data Factories corresponding to the research divisions that make up ISIR, was established. Through this, the center implements field-led (bottom-up) AI implementation that promotes AI human resource development and AI implementation specific to individual research fields.
- 2021
- The official English abbreviated name of our institute was changed from "ISIR" to "SANKEN".
- 2023
- A new logo mark was established in conjunction with the change of the official English name.
