The Research Institute for Science and Technology (RIST) was established in November 2005 to coordinate collaborative research activities in the whole university. It consists of Research Centers, Research Divisions, Social Relation Liaison Projects, Technical Division and Center for National Joint Usage / Joint Research.

Centers, Divisions and Liaison Projects are limited-term research groups on specific scientific targets with members selected throughout whole university, and sometimes even from outside. The Centers are funded jointly by Ministry of Education and the university, while Divisions are financially supported solely by the university and expected to be cores of new Centers. Social Relation Liaison Projects are collaborative activities based on agreement between the university and industries. Technical Division houses and controls experimental equipment open to university members. Research Center for Fire Safety Science is one of the nationally selected organizations for joint usage/joint research open to outside university and is now extending its activities internationally, especially in Asia.

All the members of RIST, which have different organization structure, explore their activities for their own but at the same time collaborations between members are strongly encouraged to open new horizon in science and technology. To substantiate this, they are grouped into 5 categories, Functional Materials (FM), Structural Materials (SM), Bio and Pharmacy (BP), Information and Societal (IS), and Fundamentals (F). RIST as a whole has an annual meeting, RIST-Forum, while groups in each category have meetings frequently.