Shimadzu has established the Innovation Centre in its oversea subsidiary Shimadzu (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd. (SAP) to manage most advanced joint research and development with local researchers, and started operations on November 17.

Shimadzu Innovation Centre in Singapore has 7 members of staff working to promote joint research and development and create products using promising research outcome and results collected from external organizations such as universities and research institutes in Asia and Oceania. Shimadzu will organize project teams including engineers and marketing personnel from the Head Office in Japan in accordance with the core key technologies developed outside Shimadzu, so that designing of peripheral components and development of practical applications can be started jointly at an early stage with the aim that products will be created using each technology. After developing prototypes in Singapore, the technology will be transferred to the Head Office in Japan for creating the final products. In this way, we will eliminate barriers and solve issues, so called “valley of death,” encountered during the process of creating a product.

Shimadzu is currently working with the National University of Singapore Environmental Research Institute in developing a high sensitivity environmental sensor to detect phosphorous and nitrogen contained in rivers and lakes, aiming to create a product by the end of 2020. We plan to increase the range of themes handled by the Innovation Centre in Singapore.

Shimadzu is promoting joint research and development with universities, research institutes, and companies with innovative technologies. As Shimadzu’s sales for its main analytical and measuring instruments business have been more extensive in countries outside Japan, it is important to quickly develop products and application systems that meet local needs and satisfy latent needs.

Based on this policy, in 2015 Shimadzu established an Innovation Center with about 20 employees in its subsidiary Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, Inc., located in Maryland in the United States, to conduct joint research with advanced researchers in the United States and create products utilizing research outcomes. Shimadzu also opened the Mass Spectrometry Center in its subsidiary Shimadzu (China) Co., Ltd., in Beijing in the same year to develop and establish high-end mass spectrometry systems. In 2017, Shimadzu designated advanced universities and research institutes that conduct joint research and development with Shimadzu as innovation centers, and established a headquarters in its subsidiary Shimadzu Europa GmbH located in Duisburg, Germany. The Head Office in Japan and innovation centers worldwide including the new Innovation Centre in Singapore will work together to accelerate the development of truly unique and number one products.