Hokkaido University Research and Business Park (HU R&BP) is a core research and business center situated in the Northern Campus Area of Hokkaido University. The mission of the HU R&BP Project is to materialize a system for executing activities ranging from R&D to commercialization through the combined efforts of the governing bodies of Hokkaido Prefecture, financial/economic circles, and academic institutions. The ultimate goal of the project is to utilize the intellectual property of universities and other academic institutions to develop innovative technologies and new products, create new business ventures, and thereby contribute to the economic vitality of Hokkaido.

　　The Northern Campus Area of Hokkaido University (HU) now boasts a concentration of more than a dozen institutes/centers that belong to the university, government, or private sector: 6 university-owned institutes/centers, including Creative Research Institution Sousei (CRIS); 4 public research institutes engaged in applied research (3 of them, namely Industrial Research Institute, Institute of Environmental Sciences, and Geological Survey of Hokkaido, belonging to Hokkaido Research Organization, and Hokkaido Institute of Public Health); 2 organizations promoting industry-academia-government collaborations and support programs for the creation of businesses (JST Innovation Plaza Hokkaido; Northern Advancement Center for Science and Technology); Shionogi Innovation Center for Drug Discovery, a R&D facility built by the private sector for cutting-edge research promoted jointly by the Faculty of Advanced Life Science (HU), Shionogi & Co., Ltd., and Hitachi, Ltd.; and Hokudai Business Spring, an incubation facility promoting small and medium business enterprises.

　　Hokkaido University established Creative Research Initiative “Sousei” in 2002 with the objectives of setting up a cross-disciplinary research system, creating domains of advanced academic research, and returning the results to society. Since FY2003, CRIS has been the headquarters of the Research & Business Park. CRIS executed the HU R&BP Project (FY2003-FY2007) with Special Coordination Funds (SCFs) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology designated for Strategic Research Centers (Super-COEs). Through the Project, CRIS established a system for consistently advancing the creation and utilization of knowledge. Also, CRIS has become an internationally prominent R&D Center focused on S&T-driven regional economic (re)vitalization. CRIS has amply succeeded in establishing a strong industry-academia-government collaboration system and a concentration of institutes/centers in the Northern Campus Area to promote R&D and business, and to create new structures for education, research, and undertaking new projects.