Stream 4. Startup accelerator

R&D Leader

Gil Granot-Mayer（OIST, Executive Vice President for Innovation and Outreach, Vice CEO）

Project

Development of a business development platform through the "Startup Accelerator”

The OIST Innovation Accelerator is a comprehensive program for early-stage deep technology startups, combining entrepreneurship training, competitive bootcamp activities, and incubation support. Startups worldwide compete for a year-long residency at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Japan. Participants gain access to educational resources, networking opportunities, personalized coaching, and advanced research facilities at OIST. The program equips deeptech startups with the time and resources needed to transition their innovations from the lab to the market.

Timeline for the OIST accelerator program 2023-2025

Partner (Academic)

Hitotsubashi University (Japan)
University of Melbourne (Australia)
Ontario Tech University (Canada)

Partner (Business)

Lifetime Ventures (Japan), Corundum Systems Biology, Inc. (Japan), AION Labs (Israel), Okinawa Industry Promotion Public Corp. (Japan), Okinawa Prefecture (Japan), Onna Village (Japan)

R&D plan and goal

We aim to create a startup platform based on bioconvergence R&D through industry-academia-government-finance collaboration, promoting the commercialization of OIST's basic research results and advancing their social implementation.

From R&D Leader

In this theme, we will promote social implementation, including utilizing the results created in the other four research and development projects and commercialization from OIST’s basic research seeds. To that end, we will strengthen the functions as an international hub by linking investment by venture capital, such as contacting and recruiting overseas investors and entrepreneurs. Furthermore, we aim to build an advanced global human-resource development program through organic collaboration with external partners, starting with Hitotsubashi University Business School (MBA). Such a program will foster and support entrepreneurs who play an active role in the international market.