March 7, 2007
A cross-government agency effort is seeking to change funding allocation rules for industry-academia cooperation while increasing the number of start-up companies born out of industry-university partnerships, according to a report by the Economic Daily News.
The Ministry of Education (MOE), National Science Council (NSC), and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (
MOEA) recently convened a cross-agency meeting and resolved to revise regulations on funding and supervision of university school administrations, relaxing rules on school administration fund investment channels, and encouraging industry-university partnerships to form start-up companies.
The Executive Yuan has set a goal of having 800 junior colleges incubate start-up companies by 2010.
An official at the meeting said that the MOE hopes industry-academia cooperation will serve as a catalyst for eventually implementing corporatization among national-level universities.
The first step towards corporatization of universities involves revising regulations on the appointments of education employees, civil servants, the management of school administration funds, as well as current systems for university personnel and accounting, said the official.
Revising these regulations would make it easier for university researchers to work with businesses, which would in turn foster an environment where start-up companies are created through cooperation between academic institutions and industry.
The official cited Japan as an example, where industry-academia cooperation and technology
R&D flourished greatly after Japanese universities implemented corporatization.
The official expressed hope that Taiwan would follow Japan's example, saying that in the future, start-up companies derived from universities could help enormously in upgrading Taiwan's industries.
The cross-agency group also said that funding and programs across government agencies would be consolidated. The government will combine its overall budget for technology
R&D, while funding and programs covering the 200 plus technology
R&D and incubation centers at university institutions in Taiwan would be integrated.
An overall integration plan will be drafted by the MOE within the next two months. The goal will be the gradual merger and centralization of funding and programs, with the aim of reducing the number of industry-academia cooperation centers to 10.
After consolidation, each center will cover five major areas: intellectual property licensing, incubation of start up companies, industry-academia resource data integration, industry-academia workforce training and cooperation, and international exchanges.
Meanwhile, the NSC will draft and propose an adjustment program to handle the allocation of funding and resources within two months.
(Economic Daily News)
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