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Further enhancing activity and durability of Pt-based catalysts for oxygen reduction is needed for the automotive application of fuel cells. This is however a very challenging task. Herein, we describe a new method to nail down low-oxidation-state NbO_x nanoparticles at high temperature without overgrowth using the surface pores on carbon and then deposit Pt head selectively on top of NbO_x derived by the redox reduction between themselves. This new structured catalyst, Pt-NbO_xC, exhibited mass activities higher than 0.5 A mg⁻¹ after 50,000 cycles between 0.6 and 1.0 V and 5,000 cycles between 1 and 1.5 V, which are 7 and 4 times of the 0.07 and 0.13 A mg⁻¹, respectively, on Pt/C. That high sustainable ORR activity is ascribed to strong metal-support interaction that maximizes Pt utilization and minimizes particle agglomeration, carbon corrosion and metal oxidation. Furthermore, the method embedded …