Nanotechnology Research Center
Nanotechnology Research Center was established to further develop research on nanocolumns and nanocrystals and their application to overcoming the challenging issues related to nitride semiconductor lasers.
Based on previous discoveries by members of the project team, this center’s research is directed to establishing fundamental technologies for green-range semiconductor lasers, which will allow for the creation of luminescence devices (displays) with a full range of the three primary colors. The Center’s research also explores the solid-state properties of these nanocrystals, adding to fundamental academic research on the nanocrystal effect.

Center for Environment and Trade Research
Researchers of the law and economics departments initiated a research project entitled, “The Impact of Domestic Emission Trading on Competitiveness and International Climate Change Negotiation: A Law and Economics Approach” to consider the issues of Emission Trading Scheme(ETS) which entail a cap on CO2 from different perspectives.
The first objective of this center is to quantify the magnitude of the increase in CO2 emissions known as leakage, as well as to examine the effectiveness of various counter leakage measures.
Another objective of the center is to examine whether border tax adjustment promotes the participation of emerging economies in the post-Kyoto framework in a way that will lead them to adopt carbon policies comparable with developed economies.

Center for Islamic Studies
Contemporary Islamic regions share problems linked to history, religion, politics, and economics. The Islamic Area Studies program by the NIHU (National Institute for Humanities) commenced in 2006 as a network-type research program. Its goal was to carry out a comprehensive study of these problems, and Sophia University was nominated as one of its units. The Center for Islamic Studies was established in order to promote this research project, and it currently carries out joint research with other units such as Waseda University (which serves as the headquarters of the program), the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Toyo Bunko (the Oriental Library). The Center for Islamic Studies encompasses three research groups, and the topics dealt with are as follows: (1) Islamist Movements and Popular Movements, (2) Islam in Southeast Asia (3) Sufism and Saint-worship. Meetings and conferences are periodically held in order to discuss issues of mutual interest with researchers and students from all over Japan, and an annual International conference is organized in collaboration with other units.

Human Informatics Research Center
Sophia University has many researchers in the fields of brain and neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and information science, who are studying information processing in humans. Though they belong to different faculties and departments, they are doing collaborative researches in several different ways. Researchers in psychiatry also join the center (more than 10 researchers from Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, UCSD, and Keio University), so that the research area at the center covers many fields, including neuroscience, psychiatry, human communication, and knowledge information science. The collaborations between information scientists and psychiatrists at this center are very unique projects, which take truly multidisciplinary approaches to the understanding of brain mechanisms of mental illnesses, modeling and computer simulation of the diseases, and statistical analyses of clinical data. The center has integrative projects in human communication by information scientists and scientists in psychology and linguistics, which has been a traditional style of research at Sophia University. Researches in brain computing and knowledge information science are also in progress, which support these projects. The center is rather a large organization, having more than 40 researchers as well as more than 60 graduate students participating the projects. Seminars and lectures at the center are open to researchers and students who are interested in the projects.

Sustainable Energy Research Center
Fuel cell technology is being strategically developed for the future establishment of a hydrogen society. Because fuel cell technology is an important technology that the biggest hope is placed on to simultaneously achieve the "Three Es," i.e., Earth environment, Energy security and sustainable Economic growth.
In order to commercialize the fuel cell technology, it is crucial to understand the basic mechanisms and to develop innovative materials. The purpose of sustainable energy research center is to develop the model materials of hydrocarbon polymer electrolytes and to investigate the electrochemical behaviors in polymer electrolyte fuel cells. The project is supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Department Organization (Fuel Cell Cutting-Edge Scientific Research Project (FY2010-2012), Strategic Development of PEFC Technologies for Practical Application / Comprehensive Research of Novel Hydrocarbon Polymer Electrolytes with Innovative Functions (FY2010-2011)).

Environmental Policy Dialogue Research Center
The center aims to develop and propose a forum and function in which stakeholders who are society members strongly linked with the theme can engage in deep contemplation and intense dialogue with one another, so that the conclusions derived can ultimately be communicated to the public. As first step, now we work on “Promotion of Dialogue for Policy Making：Case of the Long-term significant reduction in Green House Gases emissions(FY2008-2011)”
Under the theme of achieving significant long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, the project aims to develop and propose a forum, or called the “Forum for the Creation of a Low-Carbon Society,” With the participation and cooperation of scientists and experts with deep insight of Japan’s policy-making process, as well as leading stakeholders from various sectors, --namely, the industrial, public, NPO and civic sectors--,the Forum exceeds the boundaries of social experiment, engaging stakeholders in intense serious debate that lead to highly realistic conclusions. We will endeavour to apply the findings of this research to society after undergoing third-party assessment. The research and development project takes steady approaches in developing mid- and long-term methods, but has also come to reveal - realistic aspects, providing a solution for actual social needs and politics.