OIST’s Highlights in 2025

A year of growth

2025 saw the introduction of the largest cohort of PhD-students, with 60 new students, as well as OIST’s 200th graduate. And in disciplines ranging from mathematics to applied materials and energy science, 6 new professors joined the OIST faculty. 

Let’s take a look at OIST’s growth throughout the year.

• January: OIST announced the first three recipients of the newly established Buribushi fellowship, designed to boost outstanding researchers towards tenure.  
• February: In a Nature Opinion article signed by more than 130 researchers from universities across Japan, the OIST model was highlighted as leading the way for the future of research in Japan.
• April: OIST Energy, the second OIST Open Center, opened its figurative doors as a framework for promoting interdisciplinary science across campus under the purview of sustainability and energy. 
• June: Innovation Core 1 and 2 opened with offices, shared equipment, and lab spaces for up to 30 tenants per building, positioning OIST and Okinawa as a hub for global innovation.
• August: OIST was recognized as the first and only Organizational Member of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences in Japan, cementing OIST’s role as an authority on marine safety and scientific conduct. 
• September: We welcomed 60 PhD students, the largest cohort of our history.
• October: OIST was selected for the EXPERT-J initiative by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, designed to attract research talent from abroad and help them integrate in Japan.  
• November: OIST Sea neXus was inaugurated, complimenting the Marine Science Station with ten independently adjustable marine science labs.

Engaging, cutting-edge research

From breaking news to viral social media, OIST research has been read around the globe this year. Here’s 10 of our most popular research highlights from 2025.

Top 5 for English-speaking audiences

• Island ant communities show signs of ‘insect apocalypse’: Featured in The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, Nikkei and others, the Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit highlighted island biodiversity vulnerability.
• Protecting corals with genetic technology: An NHK World documentary dove into the eDNA research of the Marine Genomics Unit.
• Tracing brain chemistry across humanity’s family tree: The Human Evolutionary Genomics and Sensory and Behavioral Neuroscience Units described the importance of the ADSL enzyme in human evolution. Their news reached CNN, The Washington Post, Asahi Shimbun and others.
• Fungi set the stage for life on land hundreds of millions of years earlier than thought: From local Okinawan TV to international news, the Model-Based Evolutionary Genomics Unit delved into the origins of life on land.
• New, embodied AI reveals how robots and toddlers learn to understand: As seen in ARS Technica, the Asian Scientist and others, the Cognitive Neurorobotics Research Unit created a model which learns like toddlers do.

Top 5 for Japanese-speaking audiences

• Advancing the understanding of extreme weather through a new research collaboration: Making headlines including NHK, Nikkei, TV Asahi and Yomiuri Shimbun, the Marine Biophysics Unit launched a collaboration to improve extreme weather forecasting.
• Paradox of rotating turbulence finally tamed with world-class ‘hurricane-in-a-lab’: Our website’s most read story of the year comes from the Fluid Mechanics Unit, who resolved a longstanding discrepancy in turbulence with a unique hurricane-like setup.
• Marine mystery solved: How anemonefish avoid stings from their sea anemone hosts: Shared in places such as National Geographic Japan and Yomiuri Shimbun, the Computational Neuroethology and Marine Eco-Evo-Devo Units solved a longstanding mystery in clownfish-anemone symbiosis.
• Mathematical proof provides new perspectives on the effects of blending: Another top read story this year comes from the Geometric Partial Differential Equations Unit, who showcased a new proof for an important mathematical inequality.
• New tapeworm species discovered in oval squid: Capturing the imaginations of artists world-wide, our story about the ‘ika chuu chuu’ went viral on social media.

Strengthening the innovation ecosystem in Okinawa

From technology transfer to entrepreneurial development, and industry–academia collaboration, here are 5 of OIST’s notable achievements in innovation.

• Deepening ties with the Japan Association of Corporate Executives: OIST co-hosted the second joint symposium with the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, and its Okinawa branch issued a policy proposal positioning OIST as a driving force for global science and technology, as well as for the development of Okinawa and Japan. The proposal called for expanding OIST’s scale, securing national financial support, and establishing a sustainable financial foundation.
• Attracting deep-tech entrepreneurs from around the world: In 2025, four new teams—Strout, Tlaloc Blue, Cancer Free, and Perspective—joined the OIST Innovation Accelerator program. Since 2018, the program has supported 19 teams in building and scaling their businesses, including EF Polymer, who this year raised ¥2.63 billion in their Series B funding round.
• Advancing patent filing and commercialization: As of December 1, 16 invention disclosures had been submitted by OIST’s dedicated team, paving the way for researchers to bring their innovations to market.
• Progress in Proof-of-Concept program: In 2025, 9 projects were selected for the POC program, which provides funding and mentoring to validate promising technologies, and accelerates the societal implementation of scientific discoveries.
• Strengthening industry collaboration: In 2025, 18 joint research projects with companies and commissioned research projects from companies helped OIST expand its partnerships with industry.

Co-creating the future with the community

Over the past year, OIST has expanded our outreach—from education to cultural exchange—advancing our role as a co-creation hub that sparks new ideas and shapes the future together with wider communities.

• OIST Science Studio opens in Yomitan Village: OIST opened its first permanent off-campus science experience space, the “OIST Science Studio,” inside the new library in Yomitan Village.
• Addressing the well-being of fishers: We’re conducting transdisciplinary research with local communities, focusing on climate change and fishers’ well-being. Insights gathered from fishers across Okinawa informed a workshop that brought together fishers, government officials and researchers, creating a new forum to discuss the future of Okinawa’s fisheries and a sustainable social–ecological system.
• Students supporting Okinawa’s agriculture: Team iGEM Okinawa developed a DNA-based system to detect pests threatening Okinawa’s mango farms. With support from local farmers, the project earned a Gold Medal at the iGEM competition in Paris.
• Passing traditional wisdom to the future: OIST scientists, in collaboration with local artisans, studied bashōfu, a traditional Okinawan textile, and its source plant, itobashō, uncovering the scientific basis for its properties such as breathability and flexibility. The project preserves Okinawa’s craftsmanship while exploring sustainable fiber materials, linking traditional wisdom with cutting-edge science.

Did you know...

...that our parasites went viral? OIST scientists discovered two new species of tapeworm in the guts and stomachs of wild-caught oval squid and needed to name them. For the Japanese name, a visiting researcher took on the task - with some help from his daughters. They came up with Ika Chuu Chuu, which literally means “Squid kiss kiss.” The catchy name became a sensation on Japanese X, with the announcement post reaching over 1 million impressions. The new species inspired artworks, a limited-edition beer, and even a dedicated song.

...that you can collect our researchers? OIST now has its own trading cards featuring 17 researchers from the COI-NEXT project and their research topics. The cards aim to make science fun and accessible to the wider community.

...how many ice cubes it would take to stop coral dying? At our exhibition at the Osaka EXPO, we ran a contest for the best science question. The response was fantastic, with 164 questions ranging from “Why do I want to cry when I see nature?” to “Can the ocean ever run out of water?” We answered the most popular ones on our Instagram page - take a look!