Support from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s TOKYO SUTEAM project not only helped drive research and development, but also enabled Science Tokyo students to make concrete progress towards developing business models for expanding into global markets and achieving their initial goals by teaming up with industry experts who have a grasp of both scientific and business perspectives. GAP Fund initiatives previously focused primarily on driving research and development, while on the business side, individual researchers had to figure out for themselves, based on advice from their mentors, how to bridge the gap to the market. However, this new GAP Fund initiative engages research analysts to concurrently conduct international market research and meet with stakeholders to gather data and provide insights to the teams regarding the wider competitive landscape.

Additionally, the second year of the program brought in companies aiming to tackle global issues by cultivating the “seeds” of technical solutions developed at universities. These companies were matched with researchers and helped draft detailed business development plans before the GAP Fund was applied. The business developers took the lead in working with research analysts to collect data, analyze international and domestic competitors, and explore specific applications and business models. Incorporating that data on markets, products, and potential partners, and sitting in on consultations with stakeholders, enabled researchers to gain a better idea about the exact features and specs needed for commercialization and inform the direction of their work. As a result, this arrangement helped to both promote and better align the technical R&D with the business aspects of launching a successful startup.