Tag: featured

  • Horizon2020 Japan conference at the EU Delegation in Tokyo

    Horizon2020 Japan conference at the EU Delegation in Tokyo

    Horizon 2020 Japan conference encourages Japan participation in this R&D and innovation program of the EU

    Horizon 2020 Japan: Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, welcome

    Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut
    Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut

    Horizon 2020 Japan – Yoichiro Matsumoto: Japan’s research needs to go global

    (Professor Yoichiro Matsumoto, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo)

    Professor Yoichiro Matumoto, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo
    Professor Yoichiro Matumoto, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo

    Recent situation in Japanese Universities

    Japan has shown a lower growth in the publication of papers compared to other countries

    Quantity: growth rate of number of papers for the period 2009-2011 compared to 1999-2001:

    • China: +360% growth
    • USA: +28% growth
    • Germany: +28% growth
    • UK: +21% growth
    • France: +28% growth
    • Japan: +3% growth
    • World: +48% growth

    Quality: top 10% of papers during the period 2009-2011 compared to 1999-2001:

    • China: +521% growth
    • USA: +26% growth
    • Germany: +68% growth
    • UK: +57% growth
    • France: +61% growth
    • Japan: +16% growth
    • World: +51% growth

    Quality: top 1% of papers during the period 2009-2011 compared to 1999-2001:

    • China: +692% growth
    • USA: +28% growth
    • Germany: +99% growth
    • UK: +79% growth
    • France: +99% growth
    • Japan: +39% growth
    • World: +51% growth

    Budget:

    • Japanese Universities have suffered a long term budget cut for ordinary operations lasting more than 10 years
    • the ratio of competitive funds have increased rapidly
    • we must change ourselves towards strategic thinking and planning for research, its funding and sustainability

    The Science and Technology budget in Japan has been increasing rapidly until 2002, but is stagnating since 2002.

    Why is international cooperation in research important

    scientific output has grown rapidly and collaboration between institutions in different countries has intensified.
    International collaboration papers are likely to get more citation impact.

    The challenges facing Japanese research institutions – strategic competition and collaboration

    • we need strategic competition and collaboration among Japanese research institutions for the management to increase their reputation and visibility globally
    • each institution must be more competitive in human and institutional resources, research funds, facilities, student quality, educational performance, global openness, clear vision, efficiency of management…
    • unders those severe and open competition, we can make win-win relations among institutions
    • we need a long-term and bird-view thinking to enhance the sustainability of research and eduction activities in the institution
    • we need global collaboration
    • create sustainable environment for research institutions: secure enough domestic funds for research, get international R&D funds like Horizon2020, enhance the mobility of research
    • boost international exchanges between European institutions and Japanese institutions
    • create network of networks between institutions to discuss our common problems and enhance our activity of research and education

    The Royal Society 2011: “collaboration enhances the quality of research, improves its efficiency and effectiveness, and is increasingly necessary as the scale of budgets and research challenges grow”

    Horizon 2020 Japan – Anders Karlsson: EU-Japan Science collaboration – a “bird’s eye view” on publication patterns & opportunities for collaboration

    (Professor Anders Karlsson, Vice President for Global Academic Relations, Elsevier, Tokyo)

    Professor Anders Karlsson,, Vice President for Global Academic Relations, Elsevier, Tokyo
    Professor Anders Karlsson,, Vice President for Global Academic Relations, Elsevier, Tokyo

    Compound annual growth rate of scientific publications 2009-2013:

    • EU28: +4.9% growth
    • USA: +4.5% growth
    • China: +10.5% growth
    • Korea: +9.5% growth
    • Japan: +1.1% growth
    • world: +4.4% growth

    What about the top 10% most cited publications?

    • China overtook Japan for all articles: in 2003/2004
    • China overtook Japan for top 10% articles: in 2006
    • China overtook Japan for top 10% articles in Engineering: in 2003
    • China overtook Japan for top 10% articles in Medicine: in 2010

    Horizon 2020 Japan – Maria Cristina Russo: Horizon2020 – the chance to go global

    (Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission)

    Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission
    Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission

    Why go global? Why collaborate internationally?

    • all science has become global
    • value chains are internationalized: making alliances, sharing costs, accessing markets, agreeing standards
    • need to address global society challenges together
    • importance for the best EU researchers to cooperate with the best Japanese researchers
    • opportunities for Japanese researchers to participate, and to access big projects with important partners from EU and the world by only paying your researchers
    • importance of building networks: deep relationships with EU and world actors through R&D collaboration

    Why chose the EU to “go global”?
    500 million people, 28 countries, a single market = free movement of people + goods + services + capital

    • 7% of the world’s population
    • 24% of world research expenditure
    • 32% of high impact publications
    • 32% of patent applications

    Some excellent successes:

    • 109 “bottom up” participations by 50 different Japan based organizations in 79 FP7 projects
    • 5 “top down” jointly designed “coordinated calls” resulting in an additional 17 projects (ICT, aeronautics, energy, critical raw materials)
    • successful “support actions”, e.g. CONCERT-JAPAN

    Top down coordinated calls:

    • top down: joint identification of key priority areas by EU and Japanese authorities
    • parallel call procedure, parallel evaluation, separate funding – but joint work and joint results
    • worked particularly well in Japan: 5 calls 2011-2013, 17 projects jointly financed, 2 more calls launched or in the pipeline

    Unfulfilled potential – participation in EU projects – EU-Japan projects lower than Egypt or Marocco….

    1. Russia: 495
    2. USA: 476
    3. China: 321
    4. India: 253
    5. South America: 222
    6. Brazil: 206
    7. Ukraina: 185
    8. Canada: 181
    9. Australia: 177
    10. Mexico: 110
    11. Marocco: 110
    12. Japan: 109
    13. Egypt: 108
    14. Argentina: 99
    15. Korea: 65

    Some key questions:

    • why is overall Japanese participation in EU research programs so modest compared with key international partners?
    • what can be done to improve participation of Japanese research entities (public and private) in the future?
    • what are the bottlenecks and obstacles?
    • what are the best approaches? top down? or bottom up?

    Horizon2002: a paradigm shift

    • Globally the biggest research and innovation funding program: over EURO 80 billion budget over 7 years
    • The only part of the EU budget to increase (+30% over the previous program)
    • the most open program in the world, international cooperation at its core
    • challenge based approach, multi sector activities to address global society challenges
    • stressing innovation: from lab to market
    • faster, simpler, less red tape

    Three ways to participate:

    1. General opening: any international partner may participate
    2. Targeted opening: in specific topics in calls for proposals including of international partners may be: (a) encouraged, (b) required
    3. Coordinated calls: used for specific actions, paired calls, linked evaluations, two separate contracts

    How to get involved?

    1. find a relevant call
    2. find partners
    3. submit a proposal
    4. get involved!
    Maria Cristina Russo, Director, International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, European Commission
    Maria Cristina Russo, Director, International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, European Commission

    Horizon 2020 Japan – Kazushi Watanabe: Experience of international collaboration. FP7 project: Surface heat exchangers for aero-engines

    (Kazushi Watanabe, General Manager, Business Development, Sumitomo Precision Products, Aerospace & Defense)

    EU-Japan collaboration project: Advanced Structural Surface Cooler (ASSC), a component for turbines.

    EU funded the research at INEGI (Instituto de Engenharia Mecanica Gestao), Rolls-Royce, GKN Aerospace Sweden AB, SICOMP (Swerea Sicomp AB)
    METI funded research at Sumitomo Precision Products (SPP), and SPP subcontracted part of the research to the University of Tokyo

    In addition there is a Research agreement between Rolls-Royce and SPP

    One attraction of this research project for SPP is that there are not many turbine manufacturers in Japan, and this research project opened new markets for SPP products.

    Kazushi Watanabe, General Manager, Business Development, Sumitomo Precision Products, Aerospace & Defense
    Kazushi Watanabe, General Manager, Business Development, Sumitomo Precision Products, Aerospace & Defense

    Naoto Kobayashi: FP7 project and internationalization of research at Waseda University

    (Naoto Kobayashi, Center for Research Strategy, Waseda University)

    FP7 projects at Waseda University:

    • Capsil Project (April 1, 2008 – March 31, 2010)

      • International support of a common awareness and knowledge platform for studying and enabling living
      • Professor Shuji Hashimoto (Faculty of Science and Engineering), 理工学術院 橋本周司教授
      • Total budget: EURO 587,150
    • RoboSoM Project (December 1, 2009 – May 31, 2013)

      • A Robotic Sense of Movement
      • Professor Atsuo Takanishi (Faculty of Science and Engineering), 理工学術院 高西淳夫教授
      • Total budget: EURO 1,659,000
    • GR:EEN Project (March 1, 2011 – February 28, 2015)

      • Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks
      • Professor Shujiro Urata (Faculty of International Research and Education), 国際学術院 浦田秀次郎教授
      • Total budget: EURO 7,944,718
    Professor Naoto Kobayashi, Center for Research Strategy, Waseda University
    Professor Naoto Kobayashi, Center for Research Strategy, Waseda University

    Yoichi Iida, Japan-EU cooperation in civil aeronautics industry

    (Yoichi Iida, Director, Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI)

    Yoichi Iida, Director, Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI
    Yoichi Iida, Director, Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI

    Agreement between the Government of Japan and the European Community on Cooperation in Science and Technology.

    2012-2013:
    1st Working Group
    SUNJET, concluded in October 2012
    Call 5 Projects: SHEFAE, JEDI ACE and HIKARI to concluded early 2016

    March 2014: 2nd working group: discussion on next cooperation projects

    from 2015:
    Working Group
    NEXT Projects (Horizon2020)
    Future Projects (support action)

    Lessons learnt from FP7:

    • Complicated framework of agreements: IP treatment between Japanese companies and European Commission, dispute settlement process
    • different timing of budgets

    For Horizon2020 the structure of cooperation projects will be:

    1. Grant agreement between the Japanese Government and Japanese participants
    2. Grant agreement between the European Commission and European participants
    3. Coordination agreement between Japanese participants and European participants

    Horizon 2020 Japan – Satoru Ohtake: closing remarks

    (Satoru Ohtake, Senior Executive Director, Science and Technology Agency)

    Satoru Ohtake, Senior Executive Director, Science and Technology Agency
    Satoru Ohtake, Senior Executive Director, Science and Technology Agency

    Copyright·©2014 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • EU Japan investment stock

    EU Japan investment stock

    EU Japan investment stock

    EU Japan investment: Foreign direct investment (FDI) stock between EU and Japan
    Foreign direct investment (FDI) stock between EU and Japan

    EU Japan investment: EU to Japan

    EU to Japan investment register

    EU investments in Japan have been relatively constant around EURO 80 billion. There has been a marked reduction in EU investment in Japan in 2006 due to the withdrawal of Vodafone from Japan with the sale of Vodafone KK to Softbank for approx. EURO 12 billion (find details of the Vodafone-SoftBank M&A transaction here). This reduction of EU investment stock in Japan is clearly visible in the graphics below in 2006 and 2007.

    EU Japan investment: Japan to EU

    Japan to EU investment register

    Japanese investments in EU are steadily increasing, as Japanese companies are seeking to grow business outside Japan’s saturated market, and as Japanese companies acquire European companies for market access, technology and global business footprint. In 2012 the total investment stock of Japanese companies in the EU-27 has reached around EURO 150 billion.

    Copyright·©2013 ·Eurotechnology Japan KK·All Rights Reserved·

  • Japan energy market: How can an EU company succeed in Japan’s energy landscape? (EU-Japan Gateway keynote)

    Japan energy market: How can an EU company succeed in Japan’s energy landscape? (EU-Japan Gateway keynote)

    Japan energy market entry for EU companies

    EU-Japan Gateway program keynote

    I was invited to give a keynote talk to about 50 European participants in the EU-Japan Gateway program, which assists small and medium sized European companies to enter the Japanese market.

    Japan energy market: “How can a European company succeed in Japan’s energy landscape?”

    I explained Japan’s energy situation today, based on our reports:
    Renewable energy in Japan
    Japan’s energy sector

    followed by some advice on how a European company can succeed in Japan, covering the following points:

    • you often need a taylor made solution for Japan
    • you need to understand the market, market landscape, need to do your market research
    • you need to understand the value of your product/service in Japan’s market
    • you need working capital to build business in Japan, somebody needs to invest this working capital: you, your investors, or in some cases Japanese partners, each option has advantages and disadvantages
    • some common mistakes – why business development in Japan can fail
    • some steps towards success