The mission of CiRA (Center for iPS Cell Research and Application) is to research and develop medical applications (personalized medicine) based on iPS cells.

CiRA was founded as a part of the Institute for integrated Cell-Material Science (iCeMS) at the Kyoto University in 2008 and employs today round 600 employees including research students.

The Head of the CiRA is Prof. Yamanaka Shinya, Nobel Prize winner in 2012 "for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent".