Toray Industries Inc has inaugurated an R&D Innovation Center for the Future at its Shiga plant in Otsu, Japan.
The new facility will lead Toray’s global research as its functional materials headquarters. It will engage in research and develop technologies through collaboration with the company’s domestic and overseas production and sales units creating advanced materials, devices and systems in advanced medical, renewable energy, filtration and separation systems, and other eco and lifestyle innovation areas.
The centre has two buildings: the Integrated Research Building will undertake integrated research to generate ideas for materials, ideas and systems, and the Demonstration Research Building will undertake empirical research through prototyping, assessments and demonstrations based on those ideas.
Toray says that its new facility will serve as an innovation hub, through its international conference hall, exhibition and demonstration areas, and open laboratories. It will also promote strategic open innovation by engaging and collaborating with academia and key partners in diverse fields.
Akihiro Nikkaku, Toray president, said that the centre “will play a vital role in helping resolve such global issues as climate change, water shortages, and resource depletion. I also look for the facility to serve as a vehicle for joint research and development collaborations with universities and public research institutions around the world, innovating world-class technologies.”
The Shiga plant is where Toray began in 1926.
