Academic Year 2023: A leap forward for TUAT- Initiatives to promote the strengthening of the university's functions -

Formation of the first certified fund through collaboration between a national university corporation and a private venture capital firm

Medium-term Plan (4) (5) (16)

The University is working to build a "startup ecosystem" in which the university's excellent research results are returned to society and the university itself grows based on the new value created by university-launched startups. For the first time under the current system, we have decided to form an "Authorized Fund (Investment Limited Partnership)" in collaboration with BP Capital Co., Ltd., a private VC, and make investments.
With the Deep Tech Industrial Development Organization established in April Reiwa 4 (2022) as its core, the university is working centrally to foster and support entrepreneurship, discover and nurture seeds, and accelerate the social implementation of research results. In order to contribute to solving global issues such as "improving the food self-sufficiency rate" and "building a decarbonized society," the university and BP Capital Co., Ltd. have agreed to establish a venture fund that mainly supports Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology startups, and on Reiwa January 18, 2023, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology approved the establishment of the fund. In response to this certification, on January 19, Reiwa 5 (2023), BP Capital Co., Ltd. formed the "TUAT No. 1 Investment Limited Partnership (TUAT Fund)" as an unlimited partner.
In the future, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology will invest in the TUAT Fund as a limited partner after approval from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and will strongly promote startup support in collaboration with BP Capital Co., Ltd.

＜Related Links＞

• [Released on January 19, 2023] Formation of “first certified fund” through collaboration between national university corporation and private VC <Further promoting social implementation of research results>
• Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Deep Tech Industrial Development Organization

Initiative to Realize a Diversity Research Environment (Female Leader Development Type)

Medium-term Plan (18)

Our university has been selected for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Science and Technology Human Resource Development Subsidy Program "Diversity Research Environment Realization Initiative (Female Leader Development Type)" for fiscal year 2022. This program aims to train female leaders and realize an educational and research environment where diverse human resources can thrive. Specifically, we are implementing the following initiatives.
① Providing a safe and high-quality research environment and promoting the balancing of life events and research
On-campus support system (research support staff system, full-time support staff system, childbirth, childcare and elderly care consultation desk, childcare support system, elderly care knowledge sharing system), diversity seminars, career path seminars, student counselor system
② Promote the strengthening of research and management capabilities
<Challenge to acquire external funds> Research funding support, seminars on acquiring external funds, study sessions on discovering joint research projects, research leader training programs, management leader training programs (executive promotion seminars, etc.), industry-academia collaboration and startup support programs
③ The SAKURA system is designed to develop female leaders.
Promoting training and promotion to senior and executive positions
<Executive Development> Executive Career Design System
<Promotion to higher positions> Career Challenge Professor System, Career Design System
<Young Researchers Development> Pre-Career Design System, <Doctoral Human Resource Development>
RA Research Assistant System
Our university will continue to work proactively to foster diverse talent and create an improved educational and research environment in which each individual can thrive in their own unique way.

＜Related Links＞

• Women's Future Development Organization

PI Personnel Cost System

Medium-term Plan (5) (18) (19)

As part of the improvement of the competitive research funding system, the government has made it possible for Principal Investigators (PIs) to, at their request, pay their own personnel expenses from direct expenses of competitive research funding, etc. This allows universities and other institutions to use the financial resources that they had been spending on PI personnel expenses for initiatives that contribute to improving the research performance of PIs and strengthening the research capabilities of their institutions, at their own discretion.
In response to this, our university introduced this system in 2022, expanding the scope to include joint research funds and contracted research funds from the private sector. As our university is active in industry-academia collaboration, many of the system's uses have been privately funded. The financial resources obtained through this system have been used for incentives for PIs, personnel costs related to the early promotion of young Faculty Member, expanding diversity, and expanding research support personnel. Going forward, the university will continue to expand the use of this system to strengthen the research capabilities of both researchers and the university.

＜Related Links＞

• PI Personnel Cost System

Institute of Global Innovation Research

Medium-term Plan (1) (2) (9) (18)

Institute of Global Innovation Research (GIR) was established in April 2016 as a pillar of our efforts to "strengthen cutting-edge research capabilities that can compete globally."
GIR is a research special zone with the aim of promoting cutting-edge research and personnel system reform. It has set the theme of "solving the food and energy issues facing the world" and has established strategic research teams in the three priority research fields of "food," "energy," and "life sciences." It has also established an international joint research center, the Global Research Hub (GRH), and is working to achieve its mission of enhancing and strengthening an international research center that boasts world-class research standards by expanding on the experience of GIR's international joint research to date, obtaining external overseas funding, and developing international human exchanges.
At GIR, renowned foreign Professor from overseas universities who are active at the forefront of their fields collaborate with researchers from our university to promote cutting-edge research that meets social demands. In order to continuously produce research results that will have a high global impact, we have created an open and competitive research environment that transcends the boundaries of existing organizational structures within the university and are strengthening ties with cutting-edge research institutions both in Japan and abroad.
Furthermore, we are proactively creating opportunities for young researchers to take on cutting-edge research and play an active role in creating an environment that supports excellent researchers, such as by introducing flexible personnel systems including cross-appointment, pre-tenure track, tenure track, and career challenge systems, as well as implementing a program for sending young researchers overseas. Through these efforts, we aim to promote cutting-edge research that is competitive on a global scale and to create innovation that will open up a new future.

＜Related Links＞

Institute of Global Innovation Research

Aiming to become one of Japan's largest and world-class veterinary centers -- Opening of Animal Emergency Medical Center--

Medium-term Plan (22)

Animal Medical Center of Faculty of Agriculture (Fuchu Campus) was established in 1949, and for the approximately 70 years since then, it has served as an educational and research facility as well as a secondary medical institution, providing highly specialized medical care to the local community.
In order to respond to the increasing diversity and sophistication of veterinary care, we have renovated existing facilities on the Koganei Campus (Faculty of Engineering) and opened the Animal Emergency Medical Center, our university's second Animal Medical Center.
Animal Emergency Medical Center provides general medical care and weekend and holiday medical care, and will begin offering nighttime medical care and radiation therapy (scheduled to open in the fall of 2024) as soon as the necessary systems are in place. The existing Animal Medical Center will continue to provide specialized medical care as before.
With each center playing its own role and working together, it is now possible to provide more advanced veterinary care than ever before.
With the aim of becoming one of Japan's largest and world-class veterinary centers, we will work to further support local veterinary care, develop human resources, and engage in industry-academia collaboration activities based on the fusion of agriculture and industry, including veterinary and engineering collaboration.

＜Related Links＞

• Animal Emergency Medical Center

West Tokyo Joint Center for Sustainability Research and Implementation

Medium-term Plan (2) (19)

In April 2022, we established West Tokyo Joint Center for Sustainability Research and Implementation, based on the educational achievements of the joint major at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Technology, the University of Electro-Communications, and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Through the international network built by the three universities, we aim to expand and enhance the collaboration between the three universities, particularly in the Global South (places and people around the world that are negatively affected by the globalization of modern capitalism), by uncovering the latest research and social implementation needs at local universities and regions, and by utilizing these research results in research activities and social implementation activities.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies will be primarily responsible for exploring solutions to the problems of realizing an inclusive society centered on multilingual and multicultural coexistence, and for researching their effective implementation in society. The University of Electro-Communications will be primarily responsible for approaches based on product development and industrial application of technological innovation. Our university will be responsible for visualizing the concept of sustainability and spreading it to the international community through policy proposals and information dissemination in collaboration with various stakeholders. By collaborating with the three universities, we will develop and implement solutions that solve social problems brought about by a global economy based on economic supremacy.
The expansion and deepening of collaboration between the three universities, whose campuses are located close to each other, transcending the boundaries between the arts and sciences and centering on important issues such as sustainability, multicultural coexistence, and social implementation, represents a model for how future collaborations should be among universities in Japan. The impact of this center, which continuously produces "comprehensive knowledge" by a national university, is expected to become even greater.

＜Related Links＞

• 【記者会見】東京外国語大学?bet36体育在线_bet36体育投注-官网网站@?電気通信大学『西東京三大学共同サステイナビリティ国際社会実装研究機構』の設置及び三大学連携?協力の推進に関する基本協定書締結式 (content only in Japanese)

Deep Tech Industrial Development Organization

Medium-term Plan (4) (5) (16)

Deep Tech Industrial Development Organization
? Form an open innovation hub that organically combines knowledge, technology, and human resources from companies, universities, public research institutes, etc. to create value.
? Support for startups to translate cutting-edge science and technology and R&D results into social implementation
Through activities that make this possible, we aim to create new industries and transform the industrial structure.
At the seven Frontier Research Initiative Forming advanced practical studies in basic science and agricultural engineering work together, we aim to further expand open innovation by fusing different research fields and expanding interdisciplinary research themes. In addition, in order to create innovation and spread its value to society, we are promoting large-scale joint research projects between organizations and government consortium projects. In this way, we aim to make a significant contribution to solving new social problems.
Innovation Commons operates a lab space and a community space with the aim of supporting startups that aim to put the results of cutting-edge science and technology and research and development at our university into practice in society. It consists of three facilities: "Innovaton Garage," a research space for Faculty Member who are trying to start up a startup; "Tech Garage," an active learning space for students who want to put their ideas into shape; and "Innovaton Space," a lab space for companies collaborating with our university. Our goal is to be a place where diverse people, knowledge, and technology can come together, transcending positions and specialties, to create new technologies and value that will be needed in society in the future.
The efforts at Frontier Research Initiative Forming and the Innovation Commons will serve as the two wheels of our university's innovation ecosystem, accelerating the return of research results to the real world.

＜Related Links＞

• Deep Tech Industrial Development Organization

Co-creation Space Formation Support Program (COI-NEXT Co-creation Field/Full-scale) Carbon farming base challenging the limits of carbon negativity

Medium-term Plan (1) (19)

Starting in FY2023, we have begun activities as a base for the Japan Science and Technology Agency's "Co-Creation Field/Full-Scale Type Co-Creation Field (COI-NEXT)" (In this program, activities will be carried out in the Co-Creation Field/Nurturing Type from FY2021 to FY2022, with our university as the representative institution and jointly proposing with participating institutions (universities, companies, etc.), and was selected as a result of the promotion review conducted in FY2022.)

【outline】
In order to realize a carbon-circulating society, our center advocates carbon farming, which produces energy and materials other than food from biomass, and aims to realize a carbon-negative society through carbon farming, a completely new carbon circulation concept that makes maximum use of the carbon-neutral properties of biomass and also gives it negative emission properties.

【target】
Focusing on rice, wood and algae, which have the potential for carbon cultivation, the following five targets have been set. Agricultural and engineering researchers will work together to develop technology, and by collaborating with companies and overseas researchers, we will create a place of true co-creation where the technology can be implemented in society, laying the foundation for the evolution of society from a carbon-hunting model to a carbon-farming model. Hydrogen will be produced from the inedible parts of rice, wood will be converted into materials that can replace plastics, and carbon will be stored in the roots. Algae will be used to produce fuel and also to store carbon in the ocean.
1. Establishment of carbon-based agriculture and forestry
2. Establishment of material development technology through carbon cultivation
3. Establishment of fuel production technology through carbon cultivation
4. Establishment of greenhouse gas reduction and waste disposal technologies generated by carbon farming
5. Realizing a society that accepts carbon farming

＜Related Links＞

• Selected as a promotion project for the co-creation field of the JST "Co-Creation Space Formation Support Program (COI-NEXT)"

Research Results Development Project University-Based New Industry Creation Program - University-Ecosystem Promotion Startup Ecosystem Formation Support

Medium-term Plan (4) (5)

With support from the Japan Science and Technology Agency's "Startup Ecosystem Formation Project," our university is participating as a joint institute in the "Greater Tokyo Innovation Ecosystem (GTIE)," which fosters university-originated ventures that will change the world. GTIE is led by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and other local governments, with the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Waseda University as the core institutes, 14 joint institutes, and over 50 other universities, local governments, and other cooperating institutions. It is a platform that provides an educational foundation for forming a community between industry, academia, and government, sharing activity bases and spaces, and cultivating entrepreneurial talent. Through the four initiatives below, GTIE will use this platform to generate and develop internationally competitive startups, promote the sustainable economic development of Greater Tokyo, and promote the social implementation of university research results through fiscal year 2025.
①Operating entrepreneurial activity support programs
We manage the GAP fund to foster academic startups, as well as our own search fund, matching with VCs, private companies, etc. and supporting the formation of founding teams.
②Entrepreneurship education program
We provide practical entrepreneurial education and promote the development of entrepreneurial talent in order to create academic entrepreneurs who can compete on the global stage.
3) Improving the entrepreneurial environment
We will create an entrepreneurial environment for researchers and students.
④ Formation and development of ecosystems in hub cities
We will form a community for entrepreneurship through various events and strengthen our network with overseas VCs, etc.

＜Related Links＞

• Greater Tokyo Innovation Ecosystem (GTIE)

WISE Program in TUAT

Medium-term Plan (4) (5) (6)

Our university's WISE Program in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology is characterized by "creating new industries" and "diversity." In cooperation with private companies and overseas research and educational institutions, we train outstanding doctoral candidates who will lead the "super smart society" by co-creating agriculture and engineering. This is a Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology project adopted in 2018 to train highly skilled doctoral candidates who will be responsible for creating innovation over a five-year period while ensuring seamless integration of agriculture and engineering and a global standard diversity environment. The three pillars of education and research in this program are: 1) the challenge of "creating new industries through collaboration between agriculture and engineering," 2) strengthening research and business development capabilities based on an understanding of diversity, and 3) acquiring a broad perspective, originality, international competitiveness, and high level of expertise. Students from all fields of agriculture and engineering can participate in this program, and we aim to mutually understand a wide range of fields, such as food production through ICT and automation, energy, robots, artificial intelligence, new material development, autonomous driving and mobility, biotechnology, smart agriculture and forestry, livestock and veterinary medicine, infectious disease control, and the environment, hone our research skills through the exchange of knowledge and technology, and realize new ideas and new developments. To achieve this, we provide effective overseas training and study abroad, social surveys, joint projects with companies, competency assessments that serve as indicators of human capabilities, a portfolio system that visualizes growth, and exit support after graduation. This human resource development is supported by a strong network with 10 domestic partner companies and institutions, as well as collaboration with nine world-class overseas research and education institutions, and is carried out with an eye to the future through industry-government-academia collaboration.

＜Related Links＞

• WISE Program in TUAT

Highly innovative human resource development

Medium-term Plan (3) (9) (17)

The Institute for Fostering Leadership to Create Future Value through Outstanding Research, Innovation and Sustainable Higher Education (FLOuRISH) supports students enrolled in doctoral programs at our university to develop science-based innovation leaders through both strengthening their research skills and entrepreneurship. Two systems are in place to provide necessary funding as fellowships, create an environment in which students can concentrate on their research, and offer students the opportunity to choose from a range of educational programs.
1. Institute for Fostering Leadership to Create Future Value through Outstanding Research, Innovation and Sustainable Higher Education Zone JIRITSU (Independent) Fellowship Program: The program aims to support the promotion of independence for young talent by providing them with a period of time to independently tackle research topics based on their own ideas, acquire cutting-edge research skills, and contribute to society in a wide range of fields. They are required to clearly define their research mission, such as collaborative research, and to work hard on their research.
2. FLOuRISH Next Generation Researcher Challenging Research Program Fellowship Program: This is a program to develop human resources who can contribute to society by cultivating a broad scientific perspective through a comprehensive perspective based on their own cutting-edge research capabilities and entrepreneurship. Participants are required to take various educational programs such as the social implementation of research results.
*Note: Since there are fees Faculty Member, please be sure to discuss this thoroughly with your host Faculty Member before applying.
Our educational programs include 1) innovation mindset development education, 2) career development programs, and 3) practical entrepreneurial education.
In addition, the university holds the Entrepreneur Challenge, a technology-based business idea contest open to the entire university, including undergraduate students and faculty and staff, with the aim of encouraging the social implementation of research. The top prize winners are provided with funding for hypothesis testing, and additional prizes are also awarded by co-hosting and supporting organizations.

＜Related Links＞

• Institute for Fostering Leadership to Create Future Value through Outstanding Research, Innovation and Sustainable Higher Education FLOuRISH Institute

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology of Agriculture and Technology's performance as seen in rankings [Fiscal year 2021]

*Rankings are based on the 16 universities that are in the Priority Support Group for National University Corporation Operating Expenses Subsidies (3)
Source: Based on the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Status of Industry-Academia Collaboration at Universities, etc. in FY2021," the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Financial Results for FY2021 of National University Corporations, etc." and the National National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education "Basic Information on Universities"
*External funding ratio is the ratio of funds acquired from external sources such as joint research, commissioned research, and donations to ordinary revenue.
(Note) With the launch of the Tokai National Higher Education and Research System (Nagoya University and Gifu University) in April 2020, the external funding ratio for individual institutions is not recorded.

＜Related Links＞

• Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Technology Research Portal Site