Next Innovation

“Creating a new ecosystem based on our world-first and world-leading proprietary technologies that will impact society.
Creating and expanding new businesses that contribute to the whole company as well as society.
Realizing innovation for growth sectors throughout the company with a focus on speed, and creating a medium- to long-term, company-wide core engine”

The Corporate Research & Development Group
Incubation Promotion Unit

The Corporate Research & Development GroupBases: Tenri City, Nara; Chiba City, Chiba; Kashiwa City, Chiba

As a new growth strategy for Sharp, we aim to enhance added value by strengthening our technological capabilities, and to generate the next innovation by expanding business sectors.
At the Corporate Research & Development Group, we are creating new businesses throughout the company and driving the next innovation through the development of a core engine for the whole company.
We are promoting research and development centered around materials, devices, wireless communication, images, and edge AI applications at four R&D bases: Society Innovation Laboratories, which develops edge AI applications and industry DX technologies; Life Innovation & Material Laboratories, which aims for future engine technologies for smart life; Green Innovation & Device Laboratories, which develops next-generation energy technologies; and Telecommunication and Image Standards Research Laboratories, which handles next-generation telecommunications such as 6G.

Edge AI application technologies, image detection/measurement, and image transmission technologies

At Sharp, we are expanding a diverse range of B2C and B2B businesses, as well as leveraging the strength of our frequent interactions with users to promote the development of user-friendly edge AI solutions. Our goal is a fusion of the real and the virtual.
We are promoting industry DX solutions through high-precision image measurement, detection, and transmission technologies, with the aim of optimization and labor-saving in the normally labor-intensive work of monitoring and inspecting.

Next-generation encoding technologies for image transmission

Over the course of more than two decades, Sharp has advanced the research and development of wireless communication technologies such as 4G and 5G, and network standardization technologies.
We hold more than 7,500 patents essential for wireless communication and image encoding standards. Going forward, these communication and image technologies will continue to be fundamental for supporting infrastructure, and we will expand the development of next-generation 6G communication and next-generation technologies for image encoding standards, as well as our international standardization activities.

Core engine technologies for water, air, and food

We are contributing to a better quality of life with added features from material technologies, and with research and development of the core engine that will improve water, air, and food quality, which in turn supports improvements to the fundamental performance of home appliances.

Next-generation green innovation technologies

We are developing next-generation energy-saving, energy-storage, and energy-creation technologies to support a sustainable global environment.

Incubation Promotion UnitBase:Sakai City, Osaka

The Incubation Promotion Unit continually encourages the creation (incubation) of new businesses that will become the pillars that support growth at the Sharp Corporation in the next five to ten years.
Through our creative collaboration programs with start-ups and programs for generating new in-house businesses, we are inheriting innovative and creative DNA, producing solutions and business models that transform not just products but society, and realizing Sharp’s ambition to be a game changer.

SHARP INCUBATION HUB

The Sharp Incubation Hub is a platform that facilitates the creation of game-changing technologies. While inheriting innovative and creative DNA, we produce solutions and business models that are not just limited to products but also transform society, thereby realizing our ambition to be a game changer.

Specific SHARP INCUBATION HUB measures

We are promoting three programs at the Sharp Incubation Hub, two of which are being led by the Incubation Promotion Unit.
1. Sharp Co-Creation Program: This program realizes game-changing technologies through creative collaborations with start-ups and creators. 2. Sharp 01 Program: This program produces new businesses within Sharp.

SHARP Co-creation PROGRAM

This program realizes game-changing technologies through creative collaborations with start-ups and creators. Together with members who have unique technologies and projects that are the first of their kind in Japan and globally, we create a fusion of collaborative ideas from new solutions suggested by start-ups and creators, thereby realizing our ambition to be a game changer.

SHARP 01 PROGRAM

This program produces new businesses within Sharp. Utilizing the stage-gate process, we are introducing mechanisms to efficiently and swiftly tackle numerous challenges. We pay cash bonuses for the most outstanding ideas and incentivize employees whose ideas are successfully commercialized. Sharp’s employees are overflowing with creative ideas, and this framework helps them to launch new projects.

This is the official site for our incubation initiatives.

Here, we release information and notifications regarding our activity within these initiatives.