The Inamori Foundation started to accept applications for the 2022 Inamori Research Institute for Science (InaRIS) Fellowship on May 21, 2021.
InaRIS Fellowship Program was inaugurated in 2019 to support the prospective researchers to make steady efforts in their research, applying freewheeling thinking and unconventional ideas. This program grants 10 million yen per year over 10 years (totaling 100 million yen). Entering the program’s third year, four InaRIS Fellows are working on their own research projects to pursue the possibility of new prospects.
The eligible research theme set for the Program starting from fiscal 2022 is “Exploration of Forefronts in “Materials” Research,” and two new fellows are supposed to be selected. For detailed information about the application guidelines and eligibility, please refer to the InaRIS Fellowship Program .
Exploration of Forefronts in “Materials” Research
Since ancient times, humans have developed ways to get useful materials from naturally available substances and employ them to make various tools. In the 20th century, when quantum mechanics was established, the underlying physics of each of materials, such as superconductors, semiconductors, and magnetic materials, was clarified. This has led to the births of a number of new materials and devices that are widely used in information, energy and other technological fields.
While a single-element material, such as carbon, shows a variety of properties, depending on its crystal structure and shape, multi-element materials have a far greater diversity, as the compositional combinations are countless. If we further consider devices or chemical systems, made up of different materials, phenomena and functions achievable in such systems are infinite. We hope to receive research proposals of outstanding academic value or of great technological usefulness in this vast and untrodden field of materials and devices and/or in their interdisciplinary areas with other fields.