ABOUT

Global Entrepreneur Development Program with Medical-Engineering-Design Thinking Process SUPPORTING MEDICAL INNOVATION

The consortium titled “EDGE-NEXT establishing co-creation eco-system for human resources development”, in which Waseda University as a leader collaborates with SUMS, Tokyo University of Science and Yamagata University, and also cooperates with 31 organization such as Tama Art University, Toyama prefecture, Honda R&D Corporation, Okawa Dream Foundation, is adopted for Exploration and Development of Global Entrepreneurship for NEXT generation (EDGE-NEXT) in 2018 by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

EDGE-NEXT(Exploration and Development of Global Entrepreneurship for NEXT generation) aims to develop human resources who try to start a business and create new business based on the research outcomes in each university and to establish venture eco-systems, on the basis of the results and problems gained through the entrepreneur education in the each universities including the EDGE program-adopted universities.

SUMS has executed the EDGE program named as the iKODE program which specialized in medical-engineering collaboration for 3 years. In the new EDGE-NEXT program, we will pursue the lean startup and coaching seminars with Waseda University while we continue the iKODE program.

On the other hands, as the our own program(SUMS EDGE-NEXT), we will have a practical internship on campus in which students will have the experiences of project management and coordination with hand-on support by the coordinator and URA at SUMS.

By dealing with these business ideas created thorough this program, we will contribute to developing human resources and activation of regional industry in cooperation with the Consortium for Finding and Producing Growth Industry from Shiga prefecture.

Entrepreneurship Education: The education to develop a creativity of talented students for next-generation and to build an entrepreneur mind.
iKODE program: iKODE is the development program of global entrepreneur which provide a design thinking for ideation, the knowledge and networking for medical business, leading to the development of an entrepreneur for medical innovation, by using the results in cooperation between SUMS and Shiga Medical-Engineering Collaborative Manufacturers Network.
Lean Startup: The management method for starting new business proposed by Eric Ries, an American entrepreneur in 2008. “Lean” means “efficient and without vain”. The method to seek the user and/or market needs with repeating building and testing hypothesis in low-cost and short-cycle.
Coaching: Coaching is the communication skill which promotes a spontaneous action to achieve his goal thorough dialogue. It is a technique to promote spontaneous action by listening to someone’s talking, accepting with what he think, telling what you think, and asking.
Internship on Campus: This internship program is to have an experience of academia-industry collaboration activities(coordination with industry and project management) on campus. In this program, you will carry out the activities such as finding research seeds and medical needs, management of own or other’s research project, making the presentation material (brochure) of those seeds and needs, matching with industries.
Pitch Contest: The competition in which competitors present and compete their ideas of products and service in limited time. In general meaning, it means ventures sells investors appeals and possibility and gains funds.
The Consortium for Finding and Producing Growth Industry from Shiga prefecture: The consortium is composed of total 11 institutions, including 6 universities in Shiga, 2 local banks, Shiga Prefecture Industrial Support Plaza, Leave a Nest Co., Ltd., aiming to produce global R&D ventures in the field of manufacturing technology and water/environment, based on the potentials such as R&D outcomes of universities(science and technology) and medium/small-sized enterprises in Shiga prefecture, local resources in relation to Biwa-lake.