Strengthening the Fostering of Highly Specialized Human Resources by Collaborations with Universities

In April 2023, Shimadzu Corporation started its three-year medium-term management plan with the basic policy of being an innovative company that solves social issues with global partners. With the aim of achieving this, Shimadzu is fostering highly specialized human resources, including individuals with doctorates and specialists.

REACH Project Started in Collaboration with Osaka University

In April 2021, Shimadzu in collaboration with Osaka University started the REACH^*1 Lab Project to help Shimadzu engineers and researchers obtain doctoral degrees. Shimadzu dispatches employees to work at the Shimadzu Analytical Innovation Research Laboratories, located at Osaka University. The employees devote themselves to collaborative research as doctoral students, in the laboratories of eminent researchers in fields that are the focus of Shimadzu.

• ※1 REACH: Recurrent & Re-skilling through Academia and Industry Collaboration for Higher Education

In April 2023, Shimadzu expanded the content with the objective of fostering and hiring highly specialized human resources globally, and renamed it the REACH Project. The program for dispatching Shimadzu employees to Osaka University became REACH Project Career, and REACH Project Straight was begun. In the latter, after Osaka University graduate school students finish their master’s program, Shimadzu hires them and then dispatches them to engage in collaborative research in doctoral programs.

To date, 11 people (of which one person completed their studies in March of this year and returned to Shimadzu) have participated in REACH Project Career, and one person has participated in REACH Project Straight. They are involved in researching nucleic acid drug analysis, measurement informatics, antibody drugs, metabolomics, and other fields, and are furthering their studies. 

Project Expansion and New Personnel Systems

From April 2024, the REACH Project initiative is being extended to a number of universities that have signed comprehensive collaboration agreements with Shimadzu. In October, Shimadzu newly signed an Agreement related to Comprehensive Collaboration with Waseda University. Both parties will work to develop new products and foster highly specialized human resources through collaborative research aimed at the realization of a carbon-neutral society conducive to well-being.

SPARK^*2 also began this year. In this system, Shimadzu employees in doctoral programs are encouraged both in their studies and routine work activities. In SPARK, when research domains that are strategically important from Shimadzu’s business perspective fit with the theme of the employees’ research plans in graduate school, they are free to select the university where they will study. Their tuition is paid for by Shimadzu. 

• *2 SPARK: Shimadzu Ph.D. scholarship for Professional Advancement through Research and Knowledge

At present, two employees engaged in research and product development are utilizing SPARK. They are registered in the doctoral programs at Kyoto University and Kyoto Institute of Technology, where their respective studies involve quantum entangled light and column filling techniques. 

Shimadzu will continue to collaborate with a variety of partners, and take initiatives to foster highly specialized human resources.