The International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) was one of the nine research centers sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the World Premier International Research Center Initiative(WPI). The aim of the WPI is to create top world-level research centers sufficiently attractive to outstanding researchers from around the world, and MANA was established under this premise to encourage proactive science and technology research with a team of excellent researchers.
MANA has been called one of Japan's best research institutes not only for its research output, but also for its efforts to internationalize and establish effective programs for training young researchers.