Tag: Makoto Suematsu

  • Makoto Suematsu: fast-tracking medical research in Japan

    Makoto Suematsu: fast-tracking medical research in Japan

    Makoto Suematsu, Founding President of Japan’s new Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED: The situation in Japan is so crazy, but now I will stay in Japan because I have a mission

    summary of Professor Makoto Suematsu’s talk by Gerhard Fasol

    Medical research in Japan: Fast-tracking medical research and development in Japan

    In April 2015 Japan created the new “Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED” inspired by the US NIH (National Institutes of Health), “to promote integrated research and development in the field of medicine”.

    Professor Makoto Suematsu was selected as the founding President of AMED, to build up this new Japanese national medical research agency.

    Professor Makoto Suematsu is not only an outstanding medical professional and researcher, but he is also extremely outspoken about the many changes necessary to “fast-track” medical research in Japan, and particularly to overcome the fragmentation, “the Balkanization” of medical research in Japan, due to several different competing and overlapping supervising Government ministries and agencies in the past.

    Professor Makoto Suematsu also explained the priorities he is setting to set out with relatively modest resources.

    At the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum we had intense discussions between Her Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado, Professor Makoto Suematsu, Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, Professor Nomura, JST-President Michinari Hamaguchi, and several other Japanese technology and R&D leaders.

    Read a summary of AMED-President Makoto Suematsu’s talk directly here.

    8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 2016
    8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 2016

    Copyright 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved

  • Top-down vs bottom-up innovation: Japan’s R&D leaders at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum

    Top-down vs bottom-up innovation: Japan’s R&D leaders at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum

    How to fast-track innovation in Japan

    Shuji Nakamura’s invention of high efficiency LEDs enable us to reduce global energy consumption by an amount corresponding to 60 nuclear power stations by 2020, for which he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics.

    Still, a poster child for bottom-up innovation, Shuji Nakamura was sued by his employer, left for the USA, and is now building a company in Silicon Valley which might soon become bigger than his former Japanese employer.

    Why does Shuji Nakamura’s bottom-up innovation not fit into top-down innovation narratives?

    Why does Shuji Nakamura’s bottom-up innovation not fit into top-down innovation narratives? Would Japan be a better and faster growing place with a better balance between bottom-up and top-down innovation? Does top-down innovation work at all?

    Shuji Nakamura came specially from the USA to address many of Japan’s science and technology R&D leaders at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, and explain why it makes no sense to try squeezing his bottom-up inventions into a top-down narrative and why its better to overcome established top-down narratives.

    Read how Shuji Nakamura tries to help Japan’s leaders to overcome top-down-only narratives, and understand what bottom-up innovation means.

    The 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum brought together Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, the leaders of Japan’s two major research and technology R&D funding organizations, Professor Nomura, who is working to overcome gender inequality for Japan’s (too few) medical doctors, and several of Japan’s technology leaders to discuss how to accelerate innovation in Japan.

    Her Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado honored us by taking a very active part, and asking thoughtful questions to Nobel Winner Shuji Nakamura and other speakers.

    Read and join the discussions with Japan’s R&D leaders’ talks held at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum.
    [in Japanese 日本語]

    Copyright 2016 Eurotechnology Japan KK All Rights Reserved