EDGE-NEXT (The University of Tokyo) Program Description
The fee of this program is free for participants other than corporation.
Participants from corporation will pay the fee from Basic Phase.
The EDGE-NEXT Program is an educational program in which
participating students are given an opportunity to develop a business plan
based on a certain research result at university, research institute orcorporation, and potentially could actually develop a business in order toimplement the plan. Thus, the overall goal of the program is to develop
human resources who can contribute to the business development. The
University of Tokyo program consists of the following four phases.
■Pre-Basic Phase (May - June)□University researchers (basically graduate level or higher), national
laboratory researchers, government planners, research or businessdevelopment personnel from corporations who have will to solve social
problems apply and gather together to deepen mutual understanding by
self-introduction, learn the essence of social problems through lectures byprofessors in The University of Tokyo, and find members throughnetworking by presenting your preliminary business ideas. Also thebriefing of EDGE-NEXT Basic to Practical Phase is done. Participation
fee is free.
■Basic Phase (July - August)□University researchers (basically graduate level or higher), national
laboratory researchers, government planners, research or businessdevelopment personnel from corporations who have passion to solve social
problems and have specialties (research result or business experience)
apply and gather together to deepen the problems and potential businessideas and form teams (members and roles) to solve the business issues.
□We will recruit participants in each of the following problems.
- Disasters, Infrastructure problems- Health, Medical, Aging problems- Environment (Water, Waste, Sanitation) problems- Electricity, Energy problems- Agriculture, Food problems- Others (Digital Society, etc.)□Participants will discuss deeply about the selected problem, perform
problem hearing, define problem clearly, and then form the initialbusiness idea. It is desirable to have a member in the team who canprovide research result as a basis for the business.
□Depending on the quality of the plan, we will provide transportation fee
for problem hearing and also provide support fee for gathering real
information from spot consulting companies.
□Number of participants to be recruited: about 40 (Offering will beclosed as soon as the number of application reaches the capacity.)□Participation fee from corporations: 100,000 yen per participant■Advanced Phase (September - February)□To enter Advanced Phase, each team has to submit application (problem
to be solved, how to solve the problem, overview of technology or seeds,
and member profile and his or her role in the team). We will select theteam based on the appropriateness of the theme and also team member
structure.
□Each team gets individual guidance from business experts (mentors) on
business plan development based on research results and throughcustomer hearing. Toward the end of the phase, there will be two midterm and also final business plan presentation sessions for all teams. InFebruary, each team will go to the US training session to be held in San
Diego and Silicon Valley. This US session will include a pitch session in
English in front of local VCs and business professionals.
□Depending on the quality of the plan, we will provide transportation fee
for customer hearing and also provide support fee for gathering real
information from spot consulting companies.
□Number of participants to be recruited: about 35 (about 12 teams)□Participation fee from corporations: There will be the possibility that wecannot go to US because of COVID-19. So, the fee for corporations is asfollows:
Initial fee: 300,000 yen per participant
Additional fee: When the overseas training in the US is held and if theparticipant attend it, additional 300,000 yen per participant will be paid.
(Total 600,000 yen per participant)If we cannot go to the US and do only online sessions, then the additional
fee is not necessary. (Total 300,000 yen per participant)■Practical Phase (Anytime in the year, 4 months duration)□We will pick teams (about 3 teams/6 people) from the teams which wantto launch a real business, and give them an opportunity to further brush
up their business to the level where they would possibly be able to getfirst financing.
□We will select teams based on the business plan and the activity plan(such as market validation, making prototype, member recruiting, patentapplication) and also interview session. We will provide some activity costand also mentoring to the selected teams. At the end of the term, the teamwill do final presentation and confirm the future direction.
□Participation fee from corporations: 700,000 yen per participant* Payment of travel and transportation expense is done based on the internal
rules of the University of Tokyo.
* We are going to actively utilize Web conference for the training and mentoring.