Toyota Research Institute Invests in Over $100M in Collaborative Research Program with U.S. Universities - Q&A Overview

Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has announced the 2022 results of its collaborative research program with 21 leading US academic institutions. The University Research Partnership program has committed more than $100 million to academic institutions since its launch in 2016, making it one of the largest collaborative research programs by an automotive company in the world. The program addresses some of the world's biggest challenges, such as climate change, aging society, and human understanding.?

Here’s an overview of the program and its highlights from Eric Krotkov, who leads the university partnerships, and from Brian Storey, Senior Director of Energy & Materials at TRI whose team actively collaborates with university researchers.?

Why does TRI partner with universities??

Eric:?TRI conducts applied research, covering new technologies, new capabilities, and new applications. Universities mostly conduct basic research, covering new principles and early proof of concepts. TRI partners with universities to increase basic research efforts in areas of interest and value to TRI, and to learn the insights and results from the basic research.

Brian:?Our partnerships with universities help foster new research ideas and directions. These collaborations help bring out the best and most creative ideas to help us solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

How does TRI sponsorship differ from government and other industry projects?

Eric:?TRI does not simply write checks for projects that sound interesting. What is unique about TRI-sponsored research is that there is a TRI Co-Investigator for every project, one who is actively technically involved in conducting the research. This active participation ensures alignment of the sponsored research with TRI needs, ultimately ensuring that the work does not wander into irrelevance.

Brian:?The main difference is the close collaboration between Toyota and our partners. We are looking for projects where we can collaborate in order to bring the best ideas from academia and put them into practice.?

What are some benefits that universities receive from working with TRI? What does TRI get from funding and partnering on these projects??

Eric:?One big benefit for the universities is to work on problems whose solution will have a significant impact on society; way better than working on “toy” problems. Another big benefit is to collaborate with the accomplished researchers at TRI, including their data and their equipment.?

One big benefit for TRI is the opportunity to publish more widely when teamed with university authors. Other benefits for TRI include the early discovery of new ideas and trends, retention of research personnel who could easily be professors themselves, and the ability to hire stars coming up through the university system.?

Brian:?The research projects can have real-world implications. The collaboration merges academic expertise with industry resources. Our program provides an opportunity for the people we partner with to see an immediate impact of their work.

From the TRI perspective, this program allows us to expand the aperture of the work, generate new ideas, and explore solutions we may never have thought possible.?

What are some highlights of the program since 2016?

Eric:?The stamp of approval from the academic community, with 1,000 peer-reviewed publications, and every year at least one Best Paper award. The regular influx of new ideas and new people (12 hires and 23 interns last year).

Brian:?Personally, I am most proud of the people we have worked with over a sustained period of time. We have many graduate students whose Ph.D. studies were largely supported by our program. The program has been around long enough that we have seen “our” students graduate and move on to truly remarkable things.?

What’s in store for the future of this program???

Eric:?With existing partners, the program will continue to innovate, to publish, to patent, to hand over. The program will relentlessly ask, each year, is this still relevant, how can we adjust to better meet society’s needs, and is there a better way? We will continue to look for new partners, adding to the diversity of thought and experience that is known to fuel innovation. We will stay curious.

Brian:?We’re excited to keep working with our academic research partners to find new and innovative solutions to improve and better society. We take a high-risk, high-reward approach toward advancing technological breakthroughs.?

See the full announcement in the press release?here .