For the purpose of clarification of the structure of University-Industry collaboration activities in local area of Japan, the joint researches in industry-university cooperation done by researchers at Oita University in 2007 have been analyzed in this article. As a result, it turned out that the partners of joint researches in Oita prefecture are mainly SMEs. In these cases, most of the subjects of the researches in these projects are difficult to be related to the academic researches performed on university researcher's own terms in the university laboratory. In contrast, the partners of the joint researches of Oita University located at the outside of Oita prefecture are mainly big Japanese companies. In this situation, most of the subjects of the studies apparently have relation to the academic theme.
Based on the analyses, the general restriction conditions to promote the partnership between the regional SME and university are proposed in the article.

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In the regional innovation system, venture business and small and medium-scale enterprises must make a core of the system, which possesses original industrial technology from scientific knowledge produced in the region. To develop these enterprises, it is necessary to form efficient net-work between universities, local government, regional institutes and support organizations. As the system grows commonly by joint business with enterprises in other areas, the regional innovation consortium should keep general harmony in strategy of intellectual properties.

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In this report, we are outlining the cooperative relationships between small- and medium-sized enterprises and universities in the Okayama area. Furthermore, several types of industry-academy cooperative initiatives are introduced and classified into various categories. In one group, different types of industry-academy cooperative research are described, including 1) the utilization of resources in the region, 2) commercial market development that makes use of regional R&D support foundations and 3) industry-academy-finance cooperation models. In a second group, there exists 4) municipal support for market development, 5) new product development through the use of the regional Technology Licensing Office and 6) corporate brand value enhancement as a result of prizes won in the academic community. From these different categories, we can clearly see that both the potential for new information and the development of markets are important factors in the cooperative research that takes place between small- and medium-sized enterprises and universities in the region.

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This study analyzed White Papers on Small and Medium Enterprises, and based on the result, examined the transition of government measures involving industry-academia collaboration in the field of small and medium enterprises. As a result, it is revealed that there were 2 turning points of the activation of the government measures which were the establishment of the Basic Law on Science and Technology in 1995 and the formulation of the 1st-Stage Science and Technology Basic Plan in 1996, and the revision to the Basic Law on Small and Medium Enterprises in 1999. In the future, it will be necessary to analyze the evaluation and the result of the government measures in the field of small and medium enterprises, and study what is the factor of success and failure and what the government measures should be.

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In recent years, contribution to society is one of major functions of a university. Especially, a university of science and technology attaches importance on taking stance on making a contribution to regional industry. This study suggests the effect of personal training in night school on contribution to society by historical research on night school in 1970's. Night schools carried out various educational activities with regional industry because they attach importance on receiving recognition as a higher educational institution for workers. This Collaborative relationship built on their practical activities.

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As a result of the analysis of newspaper articles over the past decade including ethical issues in relation to conflict-of-interest at universities, the issues related to university-industry research collaborations such as donation or spare-time occupation appeared at high rates particularly in medical schools. And we made a nationwide survey of university faculty members and external knowledgeable persons of the management councils of national university corporations concerning such main issues of conflict-of-interest. The result of this survey indicates that acquisition of unlisted shares or personal profits by spare-time occupations, etc. from interested parties in clinical research should be avoided. Meanwhile, it also indicates that donation or provision of expenses for collaborative research or sponsored research should be admitted with some conditions. Such rules of conflict-of-interest means that they are more severe than the guidelines drawn up by the government or the like. Those results of this research could offer basic data for each university to establish its conflict-of-interest policy in the hereafter.

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