February 27, 2015
Hitachi to Establish a Global R&D Structure from the Customer's Perspective
Hitachi, Ltd. today announced that as of April 1, it will reorganize the Group's current R&D structure. The present three laboratories in Japan (the Central Research Laboratory, the Hitachi Research Laboratory, and the Yokohama Research Laboratory), the Design Division, and overseas research bases will be reorganized into the Global Center for Social Innovation, the Center for Technology Innovation, and the Center for Exploratory Research. The goal of this reorganization is to promote R&D from the customer's perspective, on a global scale.
The newly established Global Center for Social Innovation is a frontline organization, and the researchers at four regional centers in Tokyo, North America, China and Europe will share issues and develop new solutions along with the customers through "collaborative creation". The Center for Technology Innovation will integrate the three research laboratories in Japan into one Center, which will be composed of nine centers grouped by each technology fields. The Center will strengthen technology platforms, fuse various technologies and to promote R&D for innovative products, all of which are needed in the solutions developed by the Center for Social Innovation. The Center for Exploratory Research will promote R&D targeting cutting-edge technologies from a long-term perspective, and it will strive to create technology platforms for the future.
