Features

The DIARE is a university-wide cooperative research and education community, which worked in collaboration with the world's front-running researchers and departments participating in the 21st Century COE Program (2002 - 2008) and Global COE Program (2007 – 2012). The DIARE's goal is to provide quality graduate education that is on par with that in Europe and America. The DIARE is active in the international arena, and provides university-wide education and research support to cultivate young world-class researchers equipped with distinguished knowledge and the ability to create "comprehensive intelligence" (which is an organic, collaborative, and dynamic intelligence that is bolstered by profound expertise and the ability to communicate with other disciplines to stimulate innovative ideas and creativity) in new interdisciplinary research areas.

Because education and research are like two sides of the same coin, the DIARE collaborates with Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS). To ensure direct exposure to multiple disciplines, DIARE students are actively involved in various seminars, study meetings, forums, and symposiums hosted by the FRIS.

The DIARE has developed a unique curriculum in cooperation with graduate schools at Tohoku University and distinguished researchers. This curriculum is part of the graduate school education. The goals are to:

  • Inspire ideas unfettered by existing disciplines
  • Realize a free exchange of ideas across disciplines
  • Cultivate students and researches with multifaceted views
  • Encourage "comprehensive intelligence"

Additionally, the DIARE selects outstanding students who wish to perform interdisciplinary research in a proactive manner, and provides financial aid and an improved research environment. Besides excelling in one's major or discipline, a prerequisite to be chosen as an outstanding student is to complete at least six credits in courses designated by the DIARE that are outside the student's major or discipline in the first year of a two-year master's courses. A prerequisite to the doctoral course is that students must excel in their master's course, engage in high quality research activities, and submit a unique, high quality research plan for the three-year doctoral course. Selected students receive a scholarship or grant for an international internship, activities in an academic society, or research expenses according to their individual needs.