September 1, 2020R&D

Nagoya University and AGC Launch New Industry-Academia Comprehensive Collaboration from Theme Exploration to New Business Launch

- Co-creation of Future Society Created by Materials -

AGC (Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Takuya Shimamura) has announced that AGC, together with Nagoya University (President: Seiichi Matsuo), will launch a new industry-academia collaboration initiative designed to quickly and flexibly cover every stage from exploratory research to full-scale social implementation.

In 2014, Nagoya University established the Institute of Innovation for Future Society ("the Institute") for the field of applied research. The Institute has been carrying out a variety of industry-academia collaboration initiatives, primarily in interdependent fields, and has already produced a number of successful results. Later, in 2018, the 'Promotion Office for Open Innovation'*1 was established as part of the Institute, and has been actively pursuing the implementation of research results in society.

Meanwhile, AGC has been pursuing the realization of a better society through innovations in materials such as glass, chemicals and ceramics. Positioning mobility, electronics, and life sciences as strategic business areas, AGC continues to create new businesses and products, and to strengthen its core technologies with the aim of further expanding and growing its business areas. To accelerate R&D efforts, the company has also been promoting open innovation while strengthening partnerships with a variety of universities and organizations.

Nagoya University and AGC have already achieved outstanding research results through individual joint research in a wide range of technical areas. In the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) Center of Innovation (COI) Program*2 which began in 2014, the 'AGC Industry-Academia Collaborative Research Division'*3 was also established at Nagoya University. This division promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration in the life science field with particular focus on medical and engineering collaboration.

In this latest development, a Comprehensive Collaboration Agreement was signed with the aim of strengthening mid- to long-term collaboration and expanding target fields. These fields are not only the life science field, but also the mobility field―one of Nagoya University's strengths―with applied research and new product development based on evaluation technology, and the field of innovative fundamental technologies such as plasma science and materials research.

In order to combine the needs of AGC, which is centered on strategic businesses, with the fundamental technologies of Nagoya University in this comprehensive collaboration initiative, AGC’s Industry-Academia Collaborative Research Division and the Institute's Promotion Office for Open Innovation will work together to create a new and more comprehensive structure capable of quickly realizing every stage from the launch of exploratory research, whose purpose is to examine basic principles and validate technologies, to the transition to full-scale collaborative research, and finally social implementation through commercialization.

With Nagoya University serving as the hub for co-creation through industry-academia collaboration, this collaboration between Nagoya University and AGC will complement and combine the various strengths of AGC with those of other companies and universities to realize a research platform that will pursue new innovations and value creation.

Nagoya University's National Innovation Complex, which houses the Promotion Office for Open Innovation and AGC Industry-Academia Collaborative Research Division(Nagoya University Higashiyama Campus, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya City) Nagoya University's National Innovation Complex, which houses the Promotion Office for Open Innovation and AGC Industry-Academia Collaborative Research Division(Nagoya University Higashiyama Campus, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya City)
Notes:
*1: About the Promotion Office for Open Innovation (within the Institute of Innovation for Future Society)

With the 2018 adoption of 'Project for Establishing Institutes for Open Innovation' (MEXT, 2018), the Promotion Office for Open Innovation was established in November 2018 as part of the Institute of Innovation for Future Society. In not only the research fields and R&D departments that are heavily involved in corporate business strategy but also those fields where closed collaborative research is conducted (competitive fields), this Promotion Office aims to establish a structure that enables companies and university researchers to promote and manage large-scale joint research projects from development to commercialization (for social implementation) based on university-proposed solutions.

*2: A MEXT program that provides up to 9 years of support for vision-driven challenging and high-risk R&D aimed at achieving the ideal vision for society in 10 years from now.

*3: About the AGC Industry-Academia Collaborative Research Division
Name Biodevice Processing Research Division (AGC)
Research content 1) Research and development of microfabrication-technology-based biodevices, etc., intended for health and medical treatment fields
2) Exploratory research themes in the three main research areas of (1) life science, (2) mobility, and (3) innovative fundamental technologies
Academic staff Specially Appointed Professor: Takashige Maekawa; Specially Appointed Associate Professor: Yoko Mitsui
Specially Appointed Assistant Professors: Naoyuki Kogo/Zetao Zhu
For inquiries concerning this release:
Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Division, AGC Inc.
TEL: +81-3-3218-5603
E-mail: info-pr@agc.com
Community Relations Division, Research Cooperation Department, Nagoya University
TEL: 052-789-5545
E-mail: k-sangakukan@aip.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Related Information

Promotion Office for Open Innovation website