NIPS is an internationally recognized research institution and active international exchanges are performed. NIPS has the positions of foreign research staff, and world top-class researchers have engaged in research collaboration so far using this framework. Besides the research collaboration, visiting professors contribute to education of young researchers. In FY2014, NIPS started the Section of International Collaborative Research Project, which is run for 3 years by an adjunctive foreign professor as a Principal Investigator (P.I.). From FY2023, Dr Andrew Moorhouse in University of New South Wales Sydney (from Feb 2025, University of Sydney) (Australia) is serving as an adjunctive foreign professor and run a lab as a P.I., focusing on the brain function from the circuit level. Also, many foreign students enter Physiological Sciences Course of SOKENDAI as graduate students and engage in research actively.
One of the main international exchange activities at NIPS is the annual international symposium. A NIPS professor serves as an organizer, and leading researchers from abroad and Japan are invited. In 2024, The 54th NIPS International Symposium entitled “Frontiers in Neural Circuit Reorganization Regulation and Pathophysiology” was held on site inviting 13 overseas speakers and 8 domestic speakers (Organizers: Professors Junichi Nabekura and Hiroaki Wake). In FY2025, two NIPS International Symposia are planned to be held (Organizer: Professor Tomoki Nemoto; Organizer: Professor Yoshihiro Kubo).
NIPS has an academic contract or a memorandum of understanding for academic interaction (MOU) with foreign institutions as follows, and is actively conducting joint academic activities including collaborative researches. The institutions are Korea University College of Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine and College of Dentistry (Korea); Tübingen University, Werner Reichardt Center for Integrative Neuroscience (Germany); Chulalongkorn University (Thailand); University of New South Wales, Faculty of Medicine (Australia); Neurospin (France); and McGill University (Canada). In FY2024, a joint symposium with Yonsei University College of Medicine and College of Dentistry, and Korea University College of Medicine was held in Yonsei University. NIPS sent 25 researchers including graduate students.
Besides these, many international research collaborations of high quality are performed at the individual researchers’ level, supported by the budget of NIPS as well as NINS and also research grant from outside.