AIST REPORT 2012

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Manager, Marketing and PR, Fraunhofer OPERNao TomitaLeader, Artificial Cell Research Group, Health Research Institute, AIST Kansai Kinji Asaka2007. Head of the department “Functional Materials” at Fraunhofer IPA and one of the European CNT actuator pioneers, Ivica Kolaric, was wandering around the exhibition when he happened upon the AIST booth and saw the capabilities of the polymer actuators. Fascinated by the supreme performance of the AIST actuators, he wished to learn more about the world-class research and to collaborate with Dr. Asaka.Since that day, exchanges have been expanded. The Fraunhofer Office for Process Engineering of Functional Materials and Robotics (Fraunhofer OPER) was opened in Osaka in March 2011, and in November 2011 they held a symposium in collaboration with AIST Kansai. In July 2012, the partnership was strengthened by concluding a memorandum of understanding on comprehensive research cooperation (MOU) with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.Fraunhofer OPER marketing manager Nao Tomita, who supports this collaboration as a liaison person, explains: “We have a common mission with AIST of returning technology to society through research development and technology development, so this partnership is very beneficial. In particular, if one had to choose, the researchers at Fraunhofer IPA are probably closer to being engineers. They feel strongly that their job is to create products in collaboration with industry rather than writing papers.”Moving from commercial application to providing innovationWe asked our three interviewees to tell us about their expectations for the Japanese–German partnership.Takahisa Taguchi: “AIST is good at developing high-performance materials, and Fraunhofer IPA has strengths in its experience and know-how of turning materials into products. Therefore, I expect the partnership to be vertical in nature rather than horizontal.”Kinji Asaka: “Cooperative research can achieve things that I could not achieve by myself, and is very efficient in that something that would take five or ten years can be done in one year. I sense great expectations from business that the partnership may speed up the commercial application of our technologies.”Nao Tomita: “Each country’s awareness of the other will be improved by this partnership, and networks will be expanded. We would like to grow in scale from this foothold and have a stronger presence in Japan.”Concerning future forms of cooperation, Takahisa Taguchi envisages three stages. The collaborative research between AIST Kansai and Fraunhofer IPA is stage 1, stage 2 will also involve businesses, and stage 3 will be consortiums involving numerous businesses from Japan and Germany. As these develop, the appearance of a fourth stage is envisaged, broadening to partnerships between Japan and Germany or between Asia and Europe. A great wave of international cooperation to create and support innovation while aiming for practical results in the commercial application of technology will spread around the world from Osaka.Director-General, AIST KansaiTakahisa Taguchi Open Innovation|17

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