UCR-WG Service Innovation WG: Greetings and Objectives
Thoughts on Objectives of the UCR-WG "Collabolational Research Project for Service Innovation"
Dr. Takafumi Fujita, Director,
Division of University Corporate Relations, University of Tokyo
Yukio Ebino, Proprius21 Program Officer
Division of University Corporate Relations, University of Tokyo
The Division of University Corporate Relations has various collaborative research activities in order to
contribute to the world society within the framework of university corporate relations of Proprius21,
in which industry and academia engage in discussions as feasibility studies.
Collaborative research activities between a single private company and multiple Graduate Schools in the
University have been conducted for some time.
Now, however, we have established a model for collaborative research between multiple companies and multiple
Graduate Schools.
Furthermore, we have encouraged trials to enable planning and designing such research that will have greater
impacts on society or Japanese industries, based on an initiative of the Division of University Corporate
Relations.
The UCR-WG "Service Innovation" is one such trial.
To publicize these trials, the "7th Science and Technology Exchange Forum – Service Modeling for
Collaborative Creation of Values" was sponsored by the Division of University Corporate Relations at
the University of Tokyo Yayoi Lecture Hall in October 2006.
In that Forum, researchers of representative Japanese IT vendors;
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology;
Graduate School of Engineering; Research into Artifacts, Center for Engineering;
Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies;
and Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology introduced related science and technologies and held
panel discussions in order to study services scientifically.
dience responses generally reflected high expectations for and strong interest in future activities.
Based on these activities, the full-scale UCR-WG "Service Innovation" was started in
November 2006 under the Division of University Corporate Relations.
The merit of this project is that researchers of the above mentioned multiple Graduate Schools and Research
Centers and researchers of multiple IT enterprises including NEC, Fujitsu, Hitachi,
and Nippon IBM assemble and take a multidisciplinary approach to advancing technology under the chairmanship
of Prof. Masato Takeichi, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology.
The rationale and purpose of this project can be summed up as follows.
Currently, both the ratio of service industries to the GDP and the ratio of service industries to the
population employed are 70%, indicating that the Japanese economy is shifting toward services.
However, the productivity of service industries is sometimes lower than that of manufacturing industries.
The next objective for Japan, which has heretofore emphasized manufacturing,
is to revolutionize the field of service.
In today's project, we seek to foster practical studies in the next stage by setting up research domains under
cooperative relations between universities and corporations and to clarify the main subjects in the field of
services through analyzing services structures.
We hope that highly significant collaborative research activities will be promoted in the future by engaging people of service industries.
Towards Collabolational Research for Service Innovation
Dr. Masato Takeichi, Chairman and Professor,
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo
The services industry now accounts for a substantial 70% of the GDP and nearly 70% of the employees in Japan
and other advanced countries.
Such services have penetrated not only industries but also the public arena by providing the social
infrastructure for people's convenience and safety.
Considering the present status, services creation in the field of industries will not only wake up society by
generating greater economic values but will also provide public benefits such as the prosperity of society
that will lead to the security of people through administrative, medical, and welfare services.
In recent years, economic and social system has come to rely on information technology so heavily that we are
now called Information Society that will develop to support an abundant social base.
However, our experience suggests that creating services through information technology may radically change
industries and society.
These services are currently provided individually, so scientific techniques must be applied to ensure that
services can be provided more efficiently and completely new services can be developed.
If we attempt to conceptualize an ideal situation for services, we soon realize that,
in addition to seeking economic values,
we must also seek public benefits such as soundness of social systems and satisfaction of people.
For these reasons, the Division of University Corporate Relations, University of Tokyo,
inaugurated a Collaborational Research Project for Service Innovation.
The purpose of this project is to foster collaborative research for innovation of services by establishing
cooperative relations among scientific research in the University and technical development in industries.
To achieve such innovation by comprehensively understanding the intangible, hterogeneous, simultaneous,
and perishable characteristics of services, it will be necessary to establish a scientific methodology that
takes these characteristics into consideration.
For that purpose, we plan to tackle various areas, such as quantitative analysis of objects,
mathematical modeling, optimization, and emergent of services.
In our project, researchers from the University and participating industries will collaborate in studies in
pursuit of innovation through creation of services.
We are confident that this collaborative research will produce results that meet your highest expectations.
