NAIST has been selected to lead the globalization of Japanese higher education as part of the "Top Global University Project (Type B)" funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). For a period of ten years, the ministry will support outstanding universities to reform institutional governance and collaborate with globally recognized top universities in order to strengthen international competitiveness.

As outlined in "NAIST Global3: cultivating Global leaders through Global standard graduate education on a Global campus", NAIST will further enhance its international graduate courses with the inclusion of a joint degree scheme, develop a new model for graduate education based on research of the highest standard in the world, reform institutional governance to improve strategic agility, create a global campus environment that supports trans-disciplinary education and cultural diversity, and reorganize the 3 present graduate schools into a single entity to allow a new, flexible approach to research groups.