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About TIA

TIA is an open innovation hub operated by five public organizations: the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), the University of Tsukuba, the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), and the University of Tokyo. To drive innovation in Japan, these five stellar organizations of TIA collaborate and compile their resources for R&D (e.g., researchers, facilities, and intellectual property) and support the creation of knowledge and its application in industry. TIA also fosters next-generation scientists and engineers.

TIA was first named the Tsukuba Innovation Arena for Nanotechnology (TIA-nano) in 2009, and then renamed to TIA in 2016. Since then, TIA has expanded its research focus from nanotechnology to biotechnology, healthcare, computer science, and the internet of things (IoT). In the same year, the TIA collaborative research program “Kakehashi” commenced. Kakehashi plays a role in fostering the seeds of research with the potential to spark innovation through close cooperation among the core organizations and matching these seeds to needs, and then developing the latter into large-scale R&D projects or enabling commercialization.