Maintaining the Top Position in the World
Technological innovation is progressing every day. Canon is never satisfied with its current achievements and is promoting research and development in collaboration with other research organizations and utilizing knowledge from across the world. The company is also engaged in long-term basic research with an eye to future businesses.
Open Innovation
At present, Canon utilizes its proprietary technologies while also providing powerful technologies to companies in various industries, research institutes and universities in order to create new systems and actively adopt an approach of open innovation.
The Innovative Techno-hub for Integrated Medical Bio-imaging, or CK Project, was launched as part of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Creation of Innovation Centers for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research Areas program. The project, which combines Kyoto University's comprehensive basic scientific research foundation with Canon's technological product-development capabilities, targets the practical application of innovative medical imaging equipment.
The company will actively promote further collaboration between industry and academia to develop numerous promising technologies.
The CK Project Lab at Kyoto University Hospital
Globalization
Canon aims to expand its source of innovation Groupwide, from the current location in Japan to also include Europe and the United States, by establishing a Three Regional Headquarters management system of research and development. This effort is aimed at connecting research and development centers throughout the world and combining the output to produce significant results.
At present, Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc. is promoting the research and development of DNA diagnostic systems. The company is aiming to realize practical application of DNA diagnostic systems in the United States, a leader in biotechnology, in which the market for this field is large. At the same time, these efforts are supported in Japan, which boasts high levels of accumulated manufacturing technologies, through the development of mass-production methods utilizing precision and optical technologies.
In addition, the company's overseas research centers, such as Canon Research Centre France S.A.S. and Canon Information Systems Research Australia Pty. Ltd., make use of the characteristics of their respective regions to conduct research and development in the fields of technology in which they excel.
Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc.
Canon Research Centre France S.A.S.
Facing Challenges in Pre-Competitive Areas
Canon is focusing on not only research and development for the company's current products and their elemental and common platform technologies, but also research in pre-competitive areas, which often require 10 years or more to produce results.
By engaging in basic research in unexplored fields, the company aims to spark innovation and create completely new markets that have never existed before.
