A mission to the EU led by ROC Ministry of Economic Affairs Deputy Minister Woody Tyzz-jiun Duh signed cooperative research and development agreements with the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, the MOEA announced June 30 at the end of a nine-day trip.
“The Czech Republic has an outstanding R&D basis in the fields of precision engineering, biomedical sciences and nanotechnology, making it an excellent match for Taiwan’s manufacturers,” Duh said. The mission signed a bilateral R&D and innovation memorandum of cooperation with Czech Republic June 24 to establish an innovation platform aimed to jointly explore the EU market.
The Taiwan mission included representatives from the Industrial Technology Research Institute, Institute for Information Industry, Metal Industries Research and Development Centre, and Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research.
A cooperative accord signed during the trip between ITRI and the Penrose program of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, Holland’s largest research body, was the first such agreement between Taiwan and a major European R&D body as equal partners of an innovation and R&D research alliance, the MOEA said.
“Taiwan and the Netherlands have produced integrated R&D strategic cooperative structures in the two years since they signed a memorandum of cooperation. The next stage is to cooperate on the EU’s Horizon 2020 program,” Duh said. Horizon 2020 is a plan to combine European research and innovation funding.
During the trip, Taiwan also made important breakthroughs in establishing partnership with Germany’s largest applied research body, the Fraunhofer Society, and metal producer Heraeus Holding GmbH, paving the way for expanding substantial cooperation between Taiwan research bodies and their foreign counterparts. (SDH)
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