Open innovation and the role of universities Cases of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Open Innovation

1. Overview: Open innovation' refers to the creation of new products or services while procuring the technology and ideas needed by the company from the outside and sharing internal resources with the outside.

To this end, companies are trying to create commercialization of innovative technologies through various industry-university cooperation activities with universities with abundant intellectual and human resources.

â—‹ In response to this, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, establish a system for promoting open innovation at universities by intensively supporting and managing large-scale joint research with companies within universities, 'open innovation organization maintenance project (open innovation organization )' is being promoted as a new project this year.

2. Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Open Innovation Organization Reorganization Project' Promotion Status

1) Background of Project Promotion

Industry-academic cooperation so far has been conducted in the R&D sector of companies by individual faculty members at the laboratory level to create technological seeds for universities. has been carried out in In the future, to activate industry-university cooperation activities in response to each process ranging from corporate R&D, manufacturing, and business (sales) with the goal of open innovation, universities should expand their support and management capabilities internally ( Figure 1).

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• Industrial-academic cooperation at Japanese universities has been steadily expanding and developing, but joint research with companies is small, about 2 million yen (about 20 million won). In addition, compared to US universities, the introduction of private funds by universities is low and the license income is also significantly different.
• Japan's Abe administration's growth strategies, 「Japan Revitalization Strategy 2016 and ŒFuture Investment Strategy 2017set a goal to triple corporate investment in universities and research institutes by 2025. Policy support to promote large-scale joint research of 10 million yen (about 100 million won) or more is requested.
• For Japanese companies to conduct large-scale joint research, Japanese universities cannot propose to companies (excellence of research content, scenarios up to practical use of research results, etc.) ·Insufficient management system regarding intellectual property rights, etc. is pointed out as a problem.
• Accordingly, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology intends to realize and develop large-scale joint research through full-scale and continuous industry-academy-government cooperation through the 'open innovation organization maintenance project' for universities.

2) Project Details

• The 'Open Innovation Organization Reorganization Project' aims to establish an open innovation promotion system by systematically rearranging open innovation organizations within the university and planning, promoting, managing, and supporting large-scale joint research with companies (Figure 
• The open innovation organization is to expand university-industry cooperation activities, which have been mainly conducted in the non-competitive area of ​​companies, to the areas of competition deeply related to the company's business strategy.
• A foundation for continuously creating large-scale joint research agendas managed by open innovation organizations to establish a high-level management system for full-scale industry-academy-government cooperation through the reorganization of open innovation organizations and to operate autonomously need this
• In the non-competitive field, continuous industrial-educational cooperation networking with companies in related fields should be deepened step by step to develop and promote large-scale joint research centered on the competitive field of companies, thereby pursuing continuous independence of open innovation organizations.

An open innovation organization under the leadership of the university president, through intensive management through professional manpower of 'creative managers' and (to some extent) independent financial management system, organize rather than individual researchers or teams, and conducts at least several large-scale projects a year. must operate above.

The open innovation organization utilizes excellent research achievements in the university to propose an attractive joint research proposal to companies, adjust and negotiate with companies such as setting the contract amount for joint research and managing the promotion, and strategic intellectual property according to the company’s business strategy In addition to managing and supporting large-scale joint research through management, handling conflicts of interest and risk management in the field of corporate competition, establishing an appropriate responsibility and authority system, and establishing a financial management system, research by researchers in the humanities and social sciences as well as science and engineering fields Organization beyond domains, researcher incentive system design is required.

• The 'open innovation organization maintenance project' is planned to be implemented for 5 years at an annual cost of 170 million yen (approximately 1.7 billion won) per school (8 schools selected plan) targeting universities, and the 2018 budget (draft) is 1.48 billion yen (about 14.1 billion won).
• The project budget will be supported by personnel expenses and activity expenses of creative managers who are experts in open innovation organizations.
• As the organizational structure of universities is diverse, each university has proposed and submitted an open innovation organization in an optimal form, and as of June 2018, the first written evaluation is in progress.
• In addition, to improve the open innovation organization, the 'open innovation 'Mechanism-linked type' has been added as a new type.
• Research and development expenses, etc. to promote industry-university cooperation system reform and industry-university joint research for four research fields (planned) among the universities selected for the open innovation organization maintenance project Supported for 5 years at an annual rate of 100 million yen (about 1 billion won).

3) Expected effect

-Inducing large-scale private investment within the university through an 'open innovation organization' and establishing a system that operates autonomously to strengthen the university's management function and financial foundation, and to promote university-industry cooperation Accelerate capacity building, talent development, social contribution, and university reform.

- It will be an essential support for promoting large-scale joint research from home and abroad and realizing a three-fold increase in university investment by companies.

3. Implications

â—‹ By utilizing open innovation, companies and universities can promote mutual growth through various industry-university cooperation activities. Companies can quickly access knowledge and information related to the latest technology and can minimize risks from uncertainty in technology development.

 ○ Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology aims to create an open innovation ecosystem through large-scale joint research between universities and private companies, and contribute to national development as well as strengthen university competitiveness based on the revitalization of industry-university cooperation.

○ Recently, as more and more domestic companies are pursuing an open innovation strategy rather than their own R&D methods, the proportion of technology introduction according to the research results of universities is increasing.

○ In domestic universities, it is requested to create a leading model for industry-academic cooperation that aims to achieve independence through active industry-academic cooperation with private companies, away from dependence on the central government's university financial support project. To this end, the university-industrial cooperation foundation should enhance its role and status by strengthening the capacity for planning industrial-educational cooperation from simple research fund management, and policy support for this should be prepared.