Tissue engineering emerged during the 1990s as a potentially powerful option for regenerating tissue and research initiatives were established in various cities in the US and in European countries including the UK, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, and also in Japan. Soon fledgling societies were formed in these countries in order to represent these new sciences, notably the European Tissue Engineering Society (ETES) and, in the US, the Tissue Engineering Society (TES), soon to become the Tissue Engineering Society international (TESi) and the Regenerative Medicine Society (RMS).
Because of the overlap between the activities of these societies and the increasing globalization of science and medicine, considerations of a merger between TESI and ETES and RMS were initiated in 2004 and agreement was reached during 2005 about the formation of the consolidated society, the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS). Election of officers for TERMIS took place in September 2005, and the by-laws were approved by the Board.
Rapid progress in the organization of TERMIS took place during late 2005 and 2006. The SYIS, Student and Young Investigator Section was established in January 2006, website and newsletter launched and membership dues procedures put in place.