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SIN Japan Lead a GREAT Robotics Campaign Resulting in over £350,000 of Investment
During 2015-2016, SIN Japan teamed up with UK Trade & Investment to introduce the best of UK Robotics research and innovative companies to Japanese partners.
From a starring role in an “Innovation is GREAT” to wowing the crowds at Tokyo’s largest International Robot Expo, SIN raised profile of UK robotics and generated over £350,000 business.
Shared Objectives and Complementary Strengths
The Japanese robotics industry is worth around £15 billion each year. Japan is a robotic superpower with more than 50% of the global market for industrial robotics, and shares with the UK the need for technological innovation to tackle social challenges such as aging society. UK’s strengths in sensing, imaging, software & processing, grasping & manipulating artificial intelligence (AI), computational linguistics, interdisciplinary approaches and user-focused applications are complementary to those of the Japanese industry.
Bringing People Together
In 2015, SIN worked with UKTI to organise a scoping visit to Japan for four leading UK universities and 5 UK SMEs. The participants gained exposure as part of the Innovation is GREAT launch led by the Duke of Cambridge as well as having access to first-hand market information and government decision makers, and one-on-one meetings with business contacts. SIN negotiated space at the 2015 International Robot Expo, the largest exhibition of its kind in the world, and used a UK Pavilion to demonstrate our most cutting-edge technologies. .
Making an Impact
The campaign provided a showcase for UK expertise in robotics and created a media opportunity to promote UK-Japan innovation partnerships. New areas have been identified for UK/Japan research collaboration and two partnerships were formalised – a £300,000 multiyear contract between Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Heriot-Watt University and £60,000 sponsorship agreement between Hitachi and Edinburgh University. A further potential inward investment projects and approximately 300 new leads were generated.