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The story
From 1986 to 1988, a plan for an advanced science and technology graduate school was discussed as part of efforts to expand and reform graduate education in Japan. In May 1989, a founding preparation office and committee were established at Osaka University. NAIST was designed to be an experimental university without undergraduate facilities. Because it has no undergraduate programs, it admits from a wide range of institutions from Japan and abroad. Most Japanese programs draw mainly from their own undergraduates. After the committee finalized the founding plan for NAIST in 1991, the institute was established on October 1 of that year, with its Graduate School of Information Science and the University Library.
The Graduate School of Biological Sciences was established in April 1992, and the Graduate School of Materials Science was established in May 1996. After it accepted its first doctoral students in April 2000, the three-school structure was complete.
To promote the commercialization of research, the institute established the Venture Business Laboratory and the Intellectual Property Division in 2003 furthered the university's drive to utilize research results to secure patents and licenses, and form new businesses.
In April 2004, along with all of Japan's national universities, NAIST became an independent National University Corporation. In the same month, it opened an industry-government-academia office in Tokyo. The Guesthouse Sentan was completed in May 2004. In March 2006, Gakken Kita-Ikoma Station of the Kinetsu Keihanna Line opened near the campus.
Faculty received national honors around this time. Akita Isogai was named a Person of Cultural Merit in 2008 and executive vice president Shinji Murai received the Japan Academy Prize in 2010. In 2012, former president Yasuyuki Yamada and Shinya Yamanaka were awarded the Order of Culture.
In April 2011, the Graduate School of Information Science and the Graduate School of Biological Sciences consolidated their departments.
In September 2014, NAIST was one the 37 universities selected for the MEXT's Top Global University Project. Under the project, NAIST committed to a joint degree program, governance reform, a campus supporting cultural diversity, and reorganizing its graduate schools.
In April 2015, the university created a Center for Strategy and Planning, Institute for Educational Initiatives, Institute for Research Initiatives. It closed the Center for International Relations and Institute of Research Initiatives.
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Over the next two years, it opened the Data Science Center and overseas educational liaison offices in Indonesia and Thailand. It also created international joint laboratories with École polytechnique and the University of British Columbia.
In April 2018, the Department of Science and Technology, Graduate School of Science and Technology was established. It was a merger of the Graduate School of Information Science, Graduate School of Biological Sciences and the Graduate School of Materials Science.
In 2024, the Center for Digital Green-innovation was brought within the graduate school and a Medilux Research Center was established there.
NAIST was selected for MEXT's J-PEAKS program, one of 13 universities chosen in fiscal year 2024. The five-year project aims to build an open innovation platform with AI research systems, expand collaboration with institutions in Southeast Asia, and train doctoral researchers in automation technologies.
In January 2025, NAIST and Nara Medical University jointly established an association to promote collaboration between medicine and engineering.
From Wikipedia’s article on Nara Institute of Science and Technology, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4