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Winners of the Award for Academic Startups 2024 Program Selected

August 22, 2024

Joint Press Release with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has selected SONIRE Therapeutics Inc. as the winner of the METI Minister's Award under the Award for Academic Startups 2024 Program. Consequently, Mr. Ishii Taku, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, presented the award to the winner.

1. Outline of the Award for Academic Startups 2024 Program

The Award for Academic Startups Program aims to further promote the establishment of businesses that make use of the R&D outcomes achieved by universities or other entities, encourage startups to make challenging efforts, and encourage universities or companies to support university-developed startups. To this end, METI has been honoring promising and excellent university-developed startups.

The secretariat of the program called for applicants for the FY2024 program from Monday, April 1, to Tuesday, May 14, 2024, and 46 entities applied. Following this, the Screening Committee of external experts for the Award for Academic Startups 2024 (see Appendix 2) examined the application documents and held interviews with applicants. Finally, eight university-developed startups and the universities and companies supporting them were selected as winners.

A commendation ceremony was held on August 22, and Parliamentary Vice-Minister Ishii presented the METI Minister's Award to the winner, SONIRE Therapeutics Inc.

For details on the winners, please see Appendix 1 and visit the website for the Award for Academic Startups 2024 Program.Link

2. Outline of the winners and the award (For details, see Appendix 1.)

Winner of the METI Minister’s Award

Outline

3. Related Materials

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Industry-University Collaboration Office, Innovation and Environment Policy Bureau