The World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI) was launched in 2007 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Over the past 15 years, the program has been highly successful in building top world-standard research centers with powerful research capacity and a high level of internationalization, centers that now boast wide global visibility.

WPI provides concentrated support for projects to establish and operate research centers that have at their core a group of very high-level investigators. These centers are to create a research environment of a sufficiently high standard to give them a highly visible presence within the global scientific community―that is, to create a vibrant environment that will be of strong incentive to frontline researchers around the world to want to come and work at these centers. 

WPI Academies; 
In FY 2017, MEXT established the new category “WPI Academy” to take the vanguard in internationalizing and further renovating Japan’s research environment, making it place that expands and accelerates the international circulation of the world’s best brains. The WPI centers that have achieved “world premier status” are the members of the WPI Academy. 

 

 

JSPS is commissioned by MEXT to conduct the program’s grant selection and project assessment processes and to perform support functions aimed at maximizing the WPI Program's achievements.