Material Solutions Center (MaSC) at Tohoku University was founded on Katahira campus in January 2014. It aims to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and industrialization from the endeavors of joint-research on new materials in order to contribute to society in the future. The construction cost of the center was provided by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s subsidization for the improvement of industrial technology development facilities. The remaining cost was shared by the Institute for Materials Research (IMR), the Institute of Fluid Science (IFS), the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), and Tohoku University headquarters.

In 2018, the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) also began participation in the operations of the center, expanding the scope of research and development to both materials and their applied devices, allowing the University to create a cooperative creation base between industry and academia in the Katahira area.

Tohoku University is proud of its world-leading practical accomplishments and its tradition of material science research. Katahira campus in particular has a number of excellent research institutes for material science. Bringing together these strengths, MaSC will help the solution of your problems to meet various industrial demands.

Operations of MaSC is financially independent from the university and its funds come from usage fees for spaces and equipment, as well as other sources while attention is given to uphold security and safety.
The main research themes of this center are categorized into three fields: “Social Infrastructure”, “Electronics” and “Energy”. Each research project is determined by open application.

Since the center was founded, many industry-academia collaborative research projects have emerged through the “Real Exchange Meeting” and the “Associate Membership” activities which have been continuously operated as our vital components of industry-academia collaboration activities. On the other hand, the “Real Exchange Meeting” has led to the establishment of three research consortium centered on researchers from our university, and made-to-order collaborations have become active between researchers at each consortium and industrial companies. In addition, the “Real Tour in Tohoku University,” an attempt to explore open innovation that started in 2022, has led to industry-academia co-creation in a wide range of research fields.

Leveraging the know-how that we gained over the past 11 years from exploring new ways to co-create with industry and promoting collaborative activities, we aim to build a GX value chain by focusing on research and social implementation of materials, devices, and systems that contribute to energy and food security.

We’d like to express our appreciation for your continued support.