In 2011, the Green Mobility Collaborative Research Center (GREMO) was established in Nagoya University as a center for continuous innovation in mobility. In 2014, the Institutes of Innovation for Future Society was established as a base for innovative technology development through new forms of industry-academia-government collaboration, social implementation, and human resource development. GREMO was transferred to be the first research organization within the institute. With the reorganization of the institute, we restructured as a new GREMO (Global Research Institute for Mobility in Society) in April 2019.

The distinctive feature of the new GREMO is that researchers are gathered within three research areas: advanced vehicles, mobility services, and social impacts. Social Impact being explicitly set as a research area is unique, and we will tackle not only technology and services, but also issues related to legal systems and social acceptance.

Thanks to our past research activities related to mobility, Nagoya University has become widely recognized as a mobility research center. We now have academic exchange agreements with 15 universities (3 domestic and 12 overseas). The JST-COI (Center of Innovation) Program also significantly expanded our mobility research platform. As a result, GREMO is conducting research and development that anticipates the important issues of next-generation mobility in the three research areas mentioned above. Furthermore, through activities such as JST-OPERA (Program on Open Innovation Platform with Enterprises, Research Institute and Academia) and JST-Mirai Program, researchers and engineers from different fields interact and engage in interdisciplinary research.

At the same time, we have been focusing on developing cross-disciplinary education programs to develop human resources who will play a prominent role in the next generation mobility research, and have been offering Advanced Mobility Course to graduate students since 2017. In this course, leading industry and academia faculty members provide lectures on various aspects of mobility. In addition, we focus not only on lectures but also on practical training. Students are applying from a wide range of fields, and the applicant number is increasing year by year. We are developing it into a unique program that will lead Japan's mobility education.

It is the mission of GREMO members to create a synergistic effect by integrating a series of research and educational activities and to develop GREMO into a stronger mobility research base in the global community. We aim to create a distinctive mobility base centered on open innovation and industry-academia collaboration in research and education.

Thank you for your continued guidance and encouragement.

Mobility-related research has now reached a major inflection point. Almost all the elementary technology development has been completed, and it is finally important to solve various issues related to deployment in the real world. For this reason, Nagoya University has reorganized and expanded its existing mobility-related research and development, and has established a new research institute; Global Research Institute for Mobility in Society (GREMO).

The desire to move freely is part of our nature and is directly linked to our well-being, but how this is realized varies greatly depending on the structure of the city.

Japan, like many East Asian countries, is centralized with only one mega-city, unlike other countries with more land area, such as European countries, the United States, China and India.

Within the 23 wards of Tokyo, 84% of the city can be reached by a 10-minute walk from a train/subway station, making it a walkable city that stands out in the world. On the other hand, the rural areas have a contrasting structure due to depopulation, where many vulnerable people lack access to transportation.

In addition, Japanese society is tolerant of human error, but severely intolerant of mechanical error, which is different from Europe, the United States and China.

For this reason, in order for society to accept and implement mobility technologies in the future, it is important to conduct interdisciplinary studies from the perspective of consumers (human-centered), including social infrastructure and social systems.

At this institute, we call such an approach "human-centric mobility" and seek to develop new research frontiers.

A wide range of industry-academia-government collaboration will be promoted by this research institute. At the same time, we would like to serve as a knowledge base to support the digital transformation of automobile-related industries in the Chukyo region.

We look forward to your continued support.