Programme facilitated by the British Council Taipei, in partnership with the National Science Council (Taiwan) and the Top Taiwan Universities Strategic Alliance.

A delegation comprising of 24 high level officials representing the Taiwan Top Universities Strategic Alliance, University System of Taiwan, Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan (ITRI), National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) and the National Science Council (NSC), visited the UK in mid September. The visit was an exploratory one with a specific focus on Academic-Industry Collaboration and Technology Transfer, and aimed to identify opportunities for university-business collaborations, develop potential working models and schemes, and explore possible strategies for collaboration in technology transfer between the UK and Taiwan.

The week long programme included six institutional visits and the UK-Taiwan Academic-Industry and Technology Transfer Collaboration Forum, engaging more than 40 UK organisations.

A number of positive learning points identified by the delegation include:

• Improved understanding of the UK and Taiwan higher education institutions’ technology transfer practices, this serves as the foundation for building potential collaborative schemes.
• Positioned the UK as a major potential partner other than the US, it was discovered that the UK practices are more complementary than that with the US, in terms of project scale and funding resources.
• Garnered strong interests for bilateral collaborations from both the UK and Taiwan institutions and established interpersonal linkages between academics. Some institutions are already in the talks to further forge bilateral partnerships on research opportunities and new academic programme development.
• Enabled in-depth discussions about technology transfer and reached a consensus that the focus should be placed on social impact rather than revenue generation and that the process takes time.
• Enhanced possibilities for cross national academic-industry collaborations through linkages from academics, access to industry partners / manufacturers.

This high-level delegation visit to the UK highlighted the importance of support at the national level in bridging the gap between academics and the commercial sectors, as well as the necessity of national initiatives in encouraging international collaborations in the area of university-business collaboration.

As a result, a list of actions will be put forward to the National Science Council based on the key findings and learning points of the visit by the delegates. At the UK-Taiwan Academic-Industry and Technology Transfer Collaboration Forum, the National Science Council confirmed its plan in exploring the following possibilities:

• To provide training and development opportunities on academic-industrial collaborations and technology transfer (possibly delivered by UK experts).
• To conduct a national mapping exercise to identify priority and key areas for international collaborations.
• To facilitate international academic-industrial collaborations with designated resource.

It is expected that further updates will be available in the near future as more follow-up actions develop alongside the post-visit discussions by delegates. For more information please contact Amy Chung, Projects Manager at the British Council Taipei at amy.chung@britishcouncil.org.tw.