Several NTU materials scientists travelled to Japan to participate in a joint workshop held on the Namiki campus of the National Institute for Materials Science on August 29. The NTU-NIMS SMART Center Workshop was arranged as an opportunity for the researchers of the two institutes to assess their continuing progress since jointly establishingSMART Centers (Center of Strategic Materials Alliance for Research and Technology) on their respective campuses in July of 2013. The workshop was also held so that the centers could discuss their research collaboration plans for the year ahead.

NTU and NIMS first signed a comprehensive collaboration agreement as partner institutions in February 2012. They followed upby holding a joint workshop and signing an international cooperative graduate school agreement in Januaryof the following year.

Since signing the agreements, the deep interest in cooperation displayed on both sides, as well as the staunch support of NTU's leadership, has yielded significant cooperationbetween the two centers, including joint research on various advanced materials, exchanges of researchers, and the joint use of research facilities. The SMART Center has alsoserved as the main driver of research between NTU and NIMS.