The 4th World Materials Research Institutes Forum (4th WMRIF) was held at the Institute of Metal Research　(IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shenyang, China, during May 22-26, 2011. This Forum includes two parts, one is international symposium on “Materials Challenges for Safety and Reliability” and the other is General Assembly of the WMRIF.

18 invited top-notch researchers from Asia, North American and Europe presented their latest research results for the four topics, "Design and Fabrication of High-performance Materials", "Characterization and Evaluation of Advanced Materials", "Property and Performance of Advanced Materials" and "Applications of Advanced Materials".

During the General Assembly, the directors of member institute voted new presidential board, discussed some potentials of future research collaborations, strategies and net workings in the field of materials science and engineering, and developments of international educational system etc, and the administrative office was handed over to the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) from NIMS.

The next meeting of WMRIF will be held in 2013 sponsored by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA) in Switzerland.