Proposal for new global nanotechnology research and education complex model in Japan

In order to reinforce the international industrial competitiveness of nanotechnology through promoting the industry-academia-government collaboration under a common platform and implementing open innovation, global research and education complexes such as IMEC (Belgium), MINATEC (France), and Albany Nanotech (USA) have been established. These global nanotechnology complexes are successfully managing open user facilities, promoting education programs for the next generation, creating values for the global market, and growing their cluster scale with the support from federal and regional governments. This paper aims to research and evaluate the critical elements and key factors of the success of these 3 nanotechnology complexes, including each complex´s operation mechanisms, budgets, private-public partnership models, research areas, development process, organizational structure, decision making mechanisms for research project and management, intellectual property management, and business model. Through this evaluation and analysis, the new global nanotechnology research and education complex model (TIA-nano model: Tsukuba Innovation Arena for nanotechnology model) has proposed taking advantage of the advanced manufacturing industry of Japan, and of the accumulated research/human resources in Tsukuba city. The innovation model and R&D model is changing rapidly toward an “Open innovation model” where technology convergence and research/education integration is possible under a common research platform. The conclusion of this paper will provide the significant ideas in order to build a research and education complex that considers the nation´s industrial structure and political/economical situation.