Abstract
The advancement status of the research project supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan with Grant-in-Aid entitled "Physics and Chemistry of Functionally Graded Materials (FGM)" is presented. In this project, refractory materials for relaxation of thermal stresses are left aside, and emphasis is placed on: 1) the development of new processes for the preparation of FGMs, and development of new materials with 2) electromagnetical functionally graded properties, 3) thermoelectric and optical functionally graded properties, as well as 4)chemical and bio-chemical functionally graded properties. In addition, after showing several results of recent researches, the necessity of a research organization which allows the accumulation and synergy of the obtained results is emphasized.
