The Frontier Research Institute for Materials Science (FRIMS) was established in 2016 as a Center of Excellence at Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech). FRIMS has aimed to promote international collaboration and advanced engineering education through integration with research and has played a role in developing international innovation through creation of new research fields in materials science and chemistry, particularly in energy and green technology, by promotion of international joint research. As part of this objective, four international symposia were held every two years.

The 4th FRIMS International Symposium on Frontier Materials was held on 8−9 March 2022 at NITech. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, online presentations and participation were also allowed, but all participants valued face-to-face discussion online or onsite. In this symposium that 116 scientists and students attended, FRIMS members presented their research results as the culmination of the last six years of research at FRIMS. In addition, several of the world's top-level overseas researchers gave lectures on their latest research, and they discussed transdisciplinary research in materials science, which is indispensable for the future development of materials.

This special issue "Interdisciplinary Research in Materials Science" contains a culmination of FRIMS research activities to date as well as a selection of the papers presented at the above symposium. Excellent manuscripts were contributed from Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Singapore and Spain, and 32 articles were selected for publication in this special issue of Physica Status Solidi B. Their assessment was made by reviewers according to the publication standards of the journal.

The content ranges from modeling and analysis techniques to processing and device development, it covers a wide range of fields in materials science, and many young researchers are named as the first authors in the papers, too. It is therefore highly expected that the publication of this special issue will circulate the information presented at the symposium to readers, because we believe that the most advanced technology will be achieved by the integration of knowledge from various fields and generations, and by the progress in their interdisciplinary research.

We thank all those who attended the symposium and who contributed articles to this special issue. We also would like to acknowledge the organizing committee, especially Dr. Shuichi Nakamura, Dr. Masanobu Nakayama, Dr. Masashi Kato, Dr. Hisashi Sato and Ms. Hiroko Shimizu of FRIMS. Finally, we are grateful to Editor-in-Chief Dr. Stefan Hildebrandt and his staff of Physica Status Solidi B for the outstanding editorial support they provided.

Hidetoshi Miyazaki, Koichi Hayashi and Ken-ichi Kakimoto

Guest Editors

材料科学前沿研究所 (FRIMS) 成立于 2016 年，是名古屋工业大学 (NITech) 的卓越中心。FRIMS旨在通过与研究相结合来促进国际合作和先进的工程教育，并通过促进国际联合研究，在材料科学和化学，特别是能源和绿色技术方面创造新的研究领域，在发展国际创新方面发挥了作用。作为这一目标的一部分，每两年举办四次国际研讨会。

第四届 FRIMS 前沿材料国际研讨会于 2022 年 3 月 8 日至 9 日在 NITech 举行。由于持续的冠状病毒大流行，还允许在线演示和参与，但所有参与者都重视在线或现场的面对面讨论。在这次有 116 名科学家和学生参加的研讨会上，FRIMS 成员展示了他们的研究成果，作为 FRIMS 过去六年研究的结晶。此外，多位世界顶级海外研究人员就他们的最新研究发表了讲座，并就材料科学的跨学科研究进行了探讨，这对于未来材料的发展是不可或缺的。

本期特刊“材料科学的跨学科研究”包含迄今为止 FRIMS 研究活动的高潮以及在上述研讨会上发表的论文选集。优秀手稿来自加拿大、德国、意大利、日本、拉脱维亚、新加坡和西班牙，32 篇文章入选本期Physica Status Solidi B特刊。他们的评估是由审稿人根据该期刊的出版标准进行的。

内容从建模和分析技术到加工和器件开发，涵盖了材料科学的广泛领域，许多年轻的研究人员也被列为论文的第一作者。因此，非常期待本期特刊的出版将研讨会上呈现的信息传播给读者，因为我们相信，最先进的技术将通过整合来自各个领域和世代的知识，通过在他们的跨学科研究。

我们感谢所有参加研讨会并为本期特刊投稿的人。我们还要感谢组委会，特别是 FRIMS 的中村修一博士、中山雅信博士、加藤正志博士、佐藤久博士和清水博子女士。最后，我们感谢主编 Stefan Hildebrandt 博士和他的Physica Status Solidi B工作人员提供的出色编辑支持。

宫崎骏、林光一和柿本健一

客座编辑