University-Industry Collaboration in Area of Concentrated Supporting Industry

Abstract

There are lots of companies concerning to surface finishing, metal processing, machining and chemicals for texstile products and glasses frames in Fukui prefecture. The cooperative research with some of these companies have been carried out since 70's, while the cooperative research between the private company and the national university was considered as one kind of taboo in those days. The majority of the companies in Fukui area are middle or small sizes and private holding. Those small/middle size companies don't have the financial strength and the human resource compared to the large company, but the technological development may be planed in longer range in them because the owner stay at CTO like position in longer duration in small/middle size companies. So, in order to challenge to grobal new market based on their unique skills quickly, they would like to corabolate with the academia now. Considering this situation, the approaches in University of Fukui to activate the industries in Fukui are summarized here.