Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology

Since it became a national university corporation, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology started to focus on revitalizing its graduate school. Here we describe how this revitalization process is a key part of our goal to make this university "a university that moves the world".
We divided the graduate school system into an educational and a research organization. Then, the research organization was established as the Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology. Most faculty members belong to this research institute, whereas the graduate students belong to one of the following: Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Agriculture, and Graduate School of Bio-Application and Systems Engineering.
For several years, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) has been reviewing its systems and organizations with the following goal: restructure the systems and organizations so their members can satisfy their intellectual curiosity, make contributions to civilized society, and achieve mission-oriented research and education. Our principle here is called MORE SENSE, meaning Mission Oriented Research and Education giving Synergy in Endeavors toward a Sustainable Earth. This principle is based on the idea that a university's research capabilities should not be restricted by the conventional, narrow separations between disciplines because a university has an important role as an intellectual base of society.
Moreover, we have verified that both agriculture and engineering are mission-oriented academic fields through the faculty members' efforts in various research projects in integrated fields of agriculture and engineering, and also industry-university cooperation projects. We have also realized that technologies and perspectives that agriculture and engineering have are always mutually needed and interacting at actual problem-solving situations.
"The Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology" embodies these concepts. To "develop science and technology that allows people and Nature to coexist" through agricultural, engineering, and integrated research, TUAT has drastically restructured its entire research organization and established a new unified research institute, the Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology. The mission is to promote interaction between agriculture, engineering and comprehensive science and technology research. All of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology's fields are "divisions" or "strategic research initiatives", in this institute, and these divisions and research initiatives have enabled the free formation of research groups.
In the Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology, the researchers commonly share the goal of "science and technology to allow coexistence of people and nature", learn about progress in other fields, consider their own research activities from a broad point of view, and pay full attention to social impacts including safety and security issues. In addition, the researchers are making fundamental advances in all science fields by 1) sharing new achievements and discoveries in basic scientific fields such as physics, chemistry, bioscience, and social sciences; and 2) by providing an environment that enables researchers to share the pleasure of their new discoveries.
This institute, being based on the above principles, systematically strives to acquire funds for new and challenging research projects and to make ground-breaking and high-quality scientific advances to make TUAT "a university that moves the world".

<Divisions and strategic research initiatives>

The Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology consists of the following two strategic research initiatives and eight research divisions.