日本大学産官学連携知財センター（NUBIC）
Nihon University Business, Research and Intellectual Property Center
Q&A
Collaboration between Industry, Academia, and Government: Q & A
| Q1 | Could you explain the relationship between the TLO and Intellectual Property Headquarters within NUBIC? |
| A | NUBIC is established as part of the university. Therefore, it has two functions. One is as a TLO that promotes technological transfer of the results of research from the university to the private sector. Its second function is to act as a headquarters for intellectual property to strategically maintain and utilize these intellectual properties. The most notable feature of NUBIC is that it can provide a wide-ranging ﾓone-stop serviceﾓ for collaboration between industry, academia, and goverment. |
| Q2 | How can I find out what the professors and researchers at Nihon University are researching, specifically? |
| A | Please feel free to contact NUBIC. Your questions are always welcome. There are more than three thousand researchers working at the university. We may well be able to introduce you to the researcher(s) you are seeking. We also recognize that it is important for our researchers to work together with people in business, as this may well enhance their research or provide the impetus to start a new study. Please contact us, or access the Nihon University Research Information website (http://www.nihon-u.ac.jp/kenkyu/). |
| Q3 | We are interested in establishing a cooperative relationship between our business and academia. Who can we actually contact? |
| A | Feel free to contact a NUBIC coordinator for business-academic cooperation. Our coordinators are trained to "realize one-stop collaboration between industry, academia, and government," act as a bridge to connect your company to our researchers, and provide you with coordination services and advice. We will help you through all the necessary procedures, from disclosing research information, making a patent application with you, marketing, and licensing - all as a "one-stop service." |
| Q4 | How do you handle the results of research that are produced while we are working together? |
| A | We will discuss this point and incorporate the resulting arrangement into our agreement when we launch the joint research, and we will prepare a written document in the form of contract to clearly govern the handling of research results if necessary. Also, it is possible to execute a confidentiality contract as part of the discussions related to our actual cooperation. It should be noted, however, that our basic stance is to share any rights to and ownership of intellectual properties resulting from any joint research equally between both parties. |
| Q5 | We are categorized as a "small- or medium-sized entrepreneur." Are we still able to take advantage of collaboration between industry, academia, and government? If it is in fact possible, we would like to know how much the total cost for the service would be. |
| A | Yes, you are eligible to take advantage of this service. We at NUBIC are eager to promote collaboration between industry, academia, and government, even for small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs. The size of the company is not important. Rather, we are looking for entrepreneurs who are serious about finding solutions to existing business problems, who are seeking to start up a venture business, or who are investigating the expansion of their business by using the “university knowledge.” The cost is, as we are sure you will understand, totally dependent on the individual case and the type of the research. We also support collaboration using public assistance such Matching Funds. |
| Q6 | Can you provide technical consultation services only? We are not seeking comprehensive support. |
| A | Yes, of course. There is no charge for this service. You are welcome to contact us at any time even if you do not have an actual or fixed research theme yet. We will consider the best collaboration method corresponding to your company's needs. |
Japanese