You have (at least) the following three ways to Kyoto. The first would be the easiest, and the third the most complicated.
(1) Fly to the Kansai International Airport (KIX). They have a shuttle service by MK taxi which takes you directly to a hotel or the University. Or take a train or a bus to the Kyoto Station. (It takes 80-90 minutes.) Take a bus, subway or a taxi to the RIMS as in the webpage at RIMS. (The time for a bus depends, but it takes at least 30 minutes.)
(2) Fly to the Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), then take another flight to the Osaka Itami Airport (ITM). They have a shuttle service by MK taxi which takes you directly to a hotel or the University. Or take a train or a bus to the Kyoto Station. (It takes 60-70 minutes.) Then go to the RIMS as in (1).
(3) Fly to the Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), then take a train on Narita Express to Tokyo and another train on Shinkansen to Kyoto. (It takes about four hours altogether. Here is the webpage of JR East.) Then go to the RIMS as in (1).
RIMS also has an instruction page.