Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Division of University Corporate Relations (DUCR)

   
   
Dr. Shigeo Kagami
Professor
General Manager
– Office of Innovation
and Entrepreneurship

The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Division of University Corporate Relations (DUCR) seeks to achieve creative university-industry collaborations in order to implement the University's research outcomes into society and attain high-impact innovation. 

One of the missions of the Office is to create specific joint research projects that harness the comprehensive skills and capabilities of the University of Tokyo. To this end the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is engaged in the promotion of various programs including Proprius21 Plus, a collaborative research development scheme; Global Proprius21, a project to create international university-industry collaborations; as well as the Science and Technology Exchange Forum & Salon and the UCR Consortia. The Office also delivers the UCR Proposal to industry on university researchers who wish to form an industry-academia partnership.

Another mission of the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is to provide support to startup companies founded upon the research and technology developed by researchers and students at the University of Tokyo. The University of Tokyo Entrepreneur Plaza, a major startup incubation facility on Hongo Campus, was opened in 2007 to support these venture companies by responding to their diverse research and business needs. Many venture companies have gotten their start from the Entrepreneur Plaza.

The Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship is also focused on entrepreneurship education. In collaboration with the University of Tokyo Edge Capital Co., Ltd.(UTEC), TODAI TLO, Ltd., and the University of Tokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd., the Office operates a program for entrepreneurship education known as “The University of Tokyo Entrepreneur DOJO”, which will start its fourteenth term of operation from this coming April. The Office also offers other type of action based entrepreneurship education programs to students including the EDGE NEXT (a global entrepreneurship program for researchers such as PhDs and Postdocs) and the Hongo Tech Garage (a Makerspace). The Office will continue to cooperate with all Faculties and Graduate Schools of the University while making concentrated efforts in the area of entrepreneurial education.

Dr. Shigeo Kagami
Professor
General Manager – Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship