For Arkema, one of the main attractions of Kyoto Research Park is a shared laboratory with specialized equipment that can help advance its R&D projects.“Over the past 10 years, customers have become more interested in knowing where a product comes from, whether it has a bio-based origin,” says Vitry, who completed a PhD at Tokyo Institute of Technology before working in Japan and China. He helped set up an Arkema R&D center in Changshu, China, before settling in Kyoto.
“We can use this equipment to characterize materials for analyses, for example measuring the electrical properties of polymers for 5G networks,” says Vitry. “These are tools we can’t afford to have ourselves because we don’t need them all the time. We’re also part of the KRP network of companies and our people meet them every week. Overall, the environment at KRP is very helpful for us.
KRP aims at being a one-stop service center for businesses, with both facilities and business support. It has 68,800 square meters of rentable space for office and other uses, laboratories where researchers and startups can use high-end equipment such as DNA sequencers and MALDI mass spectrometers at low cost, a conference center for up to 350 people, an executive lounge, and other facilities.
Adachi Takeshi of Kyoto Research Park poses in a KRP lab with a Shimadzu protein identification machine, one of only a few in Japan, which is available to tenants at low cost.These kinds of events have drawn life sciences venture companies from all over the Kansai region as well as the likes of Johnson and Johnson, Takeda Pharmaceutical, and other big brands.
JapanGov Forbes flop