This project is aimed at increasing our brand value through branding strategies such as creating and developing new nanomaterials, recruiting highly motivated candidates with a broad perspective, and bringing our traditional nanomaterials research up to the world's highest level in order to establish a global research base.
Also, with the idea of our future vision, "Creating a Learning Community," our goal is to give back to society. Furthermore, we will promote collaborative brandings with the selected project from FY 2016 （"Meijo university's brand building program by developing new optical devices based on blue LED"） to build a brand image as "The world-renowned Meijo University."

To make preparations for the introduction of the equipment necessary for the experiment (arc plasma film forming equipment, etc.) and to establish the environment for the core research development. To be more specific, we will establish a university-wide system to build a nanomaterial research center. Also, by collaborating with other research institutes, we will start an advanced analysis of nanomaterials. As for branding strategies, our goal is to prepare a great environment for introducing our nanomaterial research achievements to an international audience : for example, building our website, holding symposia open to the general public, and giving mock lectures and experiments at neighboring elementary, junior high, and high schools.

After launching the project in FY2017, we had a nanomaterial research center built, purchased experimental apparatus such as "arc plasma film forming equipment" as planned, and organized the environment for the research project in good time. Furthermore, we launched our website and started updating the information. On Mar 22, 2018, a symposium, "Nanomaterials and Optical Devices for Changing the World", was held for the general public. At this symposium, Sumio Iijima, Honorary Director of the Nanomaterial Research Center gave a lecture, and we also announced the overview and achievements of our project.
In April 2018, FROMPAGE Co., Ltd. published an article in which our university was ranked as the most attractive university in the Chubu region for two consecutive years, demonstrating our strong presence not only in the Chubu region, but in the Hokuriku and Koshinetsu regions.

Evaluations of the projects for FY 2017 were conducted by interview and in writing on May 1, 2018. For the written evaluation, we had a percentage score of 87.3, representing "Excellent." The committee members noted that the projects were mostly going well and suggested promoting active collaboration with the institutes outside the campus. They also insisted that there should be a clearer standard for assessing the achievements of our branding strategies.
For the evaluation by interview, two presentations were given. One was by our partner corporation on the future visions and branding strategies of the university, and the other was by Professor Maruyama Takahiro, director of the Nanomaterial Research Center. Following these presentations, we had 6 votes for A (Excellent), and 4 votes for B (Good). Based on this result, our achievements were highly evaluated.

External evaluations on the projects in 2017 were conducted by university researchers, cooperate engineers, and the committee members from the industry on May 21, 2018. 7 out of 9 members attended the meeting. For the evaluation in writing, we had a percentage score of 72.5 and were assessed as "Good."

In their opinion, the effort of our branding strategies for Meijo University seems to be bearing fruit since it was carried out strategically as planned.

As for the university's branding image, the judges were impressed by the launch of our website, the establishment of a research center, and the holding of symposia. On the other hand, they suggested there should be more collaborations between industry and academia and also that it would be better if there was more PR giving a clear image for practical use of nanomaterials. There were two presentations given : one on the future visions of the university by the corporation and the other on the research section by Professor Takahiro Maruyama, director of the Nanomaterials Research Center. Following these presentations, there were 6 votes for B(Good), 1 vote for C (Insufficient) and 0 votes for A from the 7 committee members. This shows that our research yielded excellent results.

We started our budget implementation after selecting our projects for 2017 and despite our busy schedule, we have implemented 95416000yen for the total funds with a percentage score of 99.6.

The main usages were as follows.
Purchase of AFM Raman equipment (49,996,000yen)/ Purchase of arc plasma film forming equipment(29,808,000yen) / Establishment of our website (3,000,000yen) /Admissions and traveling expenses for international conference (France) (735,000yen) etc.