Cultivate practical-minded human resources who can act as entrepreneurs to create new value in the region.
We will deepen industry-academia-government collaboration, build and promote an innovation ecosystem that allows sustainable education and practice.

Our vision for entrepreneurship education under “EARTH on EDGE” consortium is to cultivate talented entrepreneurs who create (1) new industries originated from regional characteristics and from global market-in strategy, and (2) vitalize local communities in order to tackle with social problems Japan faces such as population decline, aging society, prolonged economic stagnant and environmental issues.

To accomplish this goal, we will establish practical and sustainable education system in cooperation with industries, academic communities, public and financial sectors including startups and advanced foreign institutions which form innovation ecosystems.

A New value creation platform “EARTH on EDGE”

EARTH on EDGE is a new value creation platform consisting of 6 universities from various regions to create future industries through entrepreneurship education.

EDGE-NEXT : Exploration and Development of Global Entrepreneurship for NEXT generation

Our EARTH on EDGE consortium has been founded by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) under EDGE-NEXT program since August of 2017.

Background of this program is as follows:

• It is important to accelerate startup launch, especially in high-tech areas, by young professionals with a background in science and technology acquiring an entrepreneurial spirit, broad perspective and problem-finding/solving skills.
• There have been various educational programs for acquiring academic knowledge or research ability, but fewer programs for fostering entrepreneurship activities.
• The needs to strengthen entrepreneurship education and establish networks among universities, venture capital firms, and large companies for supporting startup are rapidly increasing.

This program is designed to enhance entrepreneurship activities, create promising business models based on advanced technology at academic institutions, reeducate industry’s human resources to be capable of initiating new projects within the existing corporations, and establish nation-wide entrepreneurial network.

This program is expected to provide a human capital platform for startup ecosystems.

Intensive collaborations with private companies and overseas institutes are required.

Implementing organization:

5 consortiums(Leading Universities: Tohoku University, University of Tokyo, Nagoya University, Kyushu University, Waseda University)

Period: 5 years (FY2017-2021)

Further information of this program is here. (only Japanese)