International cooperation in energy research
New AIMR Joint Research Center established at Empa
On May 27, 2025, Tohoku University's Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) and Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, signed a cooperation agreement to establish a new AIMR Joint Research Center (JRC) at Empa. The overseas satellite agreement was signed by Nathalie Casas, Head of Empa's Department Energy, Mobility, and Environment, and member of Empa's directorate and AIMR Director Shin-ichi Orimo.
AIMR has established JRCs in several countries to facilitate bidirectional exchange in multidisciplinary fields. JRCs employ local JRC scientists and promote intensive collaborative research with leading materials science institutions in each region. The new JRC joins AIMR’s existing JRCs at the University of Cambridge (UK), the University of Chicago (US) and Tsinghua University (China). The establishment of this fourth JRC aims to strengthen connections with continental Europe and enhance international cooperation in energy research. Following the signing ceremony, the participants discussed the future direction and potential of the new European JRC.
Expanding the network through hub-to-hub cooperation
Moving forward, AIMR will serve as the central hub for expansion through Tohoku University’s Core Research Cluster for Materials Science (CRC-MS), while Empa will function as the hub connecting to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich), both of which have complementary strengths in energy research. By establishing a hub-to-hub collaboration rather than one-to-one type, AIMR expects to promote joint research and academic exchange across the European continent with Empa as the base. Tohoku University’s CRC-MS brings together seven graduate schools/institutes/centers within the university in materials science where the university has particular strengths and serves as a platform for all materials scientists at Tohoku University. AIMR is one of the constituent departments of CRC-MS and also serves as its secretariat.
Dr. Michael Hagmann
Communications, Empa
Phone +41 58 765 45 92
redaktion@empa.ch
