The ties that bound RIKEN and Kazan University originated in 2002, when prof. D.A. Tayurskyy visited newly launched Nanotechnology Center of RIKEN and Quantum Condensed Phases Research Lab (led by prof. Kimitoshi Kono). This is when the researchers have decided to cooperate.

In 2008 parties signed an agreement on joint PhD programs, in 2010 – on cooperation between KFU Institute of Physics and RIKEN Advance Science Institute. During the visit of RIKEN Ex-president Ryoji Noyori in Kazan in 2012 the research lab KFU-RIKEN was opened containing labs for femtosecond spectroscopy, physics of high-correlated  systems, synthesis and analysis of thin-film systems.