The IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) is a politically independent, international, interdisciplinary think tank based at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Japan's Osaka University, which conducts and facilitates scholarly research projects. The main focus is to encourage mutual international and intercultural understanding and cooperation in line with IAFOR's mission of encouraging interdisciplinary discussion, facilitating heightened intercultural awareness, promoting international exchange, and generating and sharing new knowledge.
The IRC helps to nurture and capacity build by encouraging students to take part in international conferences and research projects, in line with Osaka University’s Global 30 commitments from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).
The vision of the centre is to become a globally recognised centre of international and interdisciplinary research excellence, that attracts the best and the brightest scholars from around the world, and helps to fulfil and consolidate the great potential of OSIPP to become Asia’s leading graduate school for international public policy studies.
The IRC is a research centre that is a collaborative project between OSIPP and IAFOR under the rules of the university and is housed at OSIPP. It was founded on April 1, 2017, by ordinance of the executive of OSIPP and is jointly funded by IAFOR and the university, and solicits external initiative and project funding. The university administers its direct funding.
The work of the IAFOR Research Centre is overseen by Professor Toshiya Hoshino in the university, with Professor Haruko Satoh as the official liaison. The representative of IAFOR is Dr Joseph Haldane.