The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) selected Tohoku University as one of the first three Designated National Universities to become an international center of excellence in education and research at the world's highest level, effective from 2017.

At that time, Tohoku University established the Research Innovation System as a major pillar of research, and established four core research centers (Materials Science, Spintronics, Next-Generation Medicine, and Disaster Science) to comprise the Organization for Advanced Studies. The Core Research Cluster for Materials Science (CRCMS) is included as one of them.