Since the establishment of the COE base and the introduction of the Academic Reform Initiative, our University has promoted merit-based rigorous assessment methods and grown into a comprehensive institute for all scientific studies. The Academic Reform Initiative, which consists of the three main pillars “research,” “education” and “social contribution,” is being vigorously implemented, with a view to continuing and furthering our founding principle, “to provide the basis for the advancement of the national welfare through the promotion of the sciences.”

For the “research” pillar in particular, the COE program “Center of Advanced Fire Safety Science and Technology for Building” adopted this year is expected to be a great catalyst that will accelerate our program. Our University may be likened to a tapestry with its vertical stitches and horizontal stitches. While eight Graduate Schools can be regarded as the vertical stitches along with their 26 departments, we also have research institutes that traverse these departments, which can be regarded as the horizontal stitches.

With this coordination, we aim to develop our COE, already Japan's only specialist organization on architectural fire safety engineering, into one of the world’s leading research centers.

One of the horizontal stitches and the cornerstone for the COE is the Center for Fire Science and Technology of the Institute for Science and Technology (to be reformed as the Fire Science Research Center). On the other hand, the vertical stitches, including various research groups in the Graduate Schools of Science Faculty and Engineering Faculty, provide close co-operation. Currently several large projects are in progress to establish a research environment that promotes such coordination.