During the COVID 19 pandemic, the importance of global academia-industrial alliances has increased. It is hoped that the alliances will help us to solve the current problems caused by the pandemic. In this paper, we introduce the application of IT tools and communication skills utilized in a special educational project for an academia-industrial collaboration. Some concrete examples from 2020 are provided from the viewpoint of the national alliance project in Japan. A discussion is included that describes the plans available to increase and strengthen the national project in the future.
Keywords: GEAR 5.0; IT tools; academia-industrial alliances; complete distance research; distance research; half distance research; smart society.
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.