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Taiwan hails cooperation with Canada

A just-completed five-year program of scientific collaboration between Taiwan and Canada will be followed up with another in fields ranging from nanotechnology to biotechnology, according to National Science Council officials yesterday.

To mark the end of the five-year effort, a two-day symposium convened by the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan and the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada was held yesterday at the Grand Hotel in Taipei.

As early as 1997, the NSC and NRC signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the sharing of information on science and technology, the exchange of eminent researchers and the training of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.

During the two-day symposium, scientists will present the results of collaborative research projects covering areas such as nanotechnology, advanced semiconductors, molecular sciences, neuroscience, manufacturing technology, biotechnology and others.

"The joint efforts of the NRC and NSC have been regarded as the "model program" in bilateral science and technology cooperation," Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) said at the opening ceremony.

At a press conference yesterday, Joseph Hsu (許榮富), director general of the Science and Technology Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, said that each of 27 ongoing projects receives NT$4.4 million in financial support, which is shared evenly by Taiwan and Canada.

In the following five years, Hsu said, the collaboration would focus on large-scale projects pertaining to nanotechnology and biotechnology, whose budgets would be dramatically increased.

"Each research project will be financed at the NT$22 million level, which, as before, will be shared evenly by Taiwan and Canada," Hsu said.

Late this week, representatives from both sides will fill in the remaining details of financing future collaborative research efforts.

Over the last five years, 67 Taiwanese doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows did research in Canada, broadening their experiences with a more global outlook.

Dozens of senior scientists from both sides participated in the exchange programs. NSC officials said yesterday that they hoped to increase the numbers of participants in the following five years.

Taking Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology as an example, NSC chairman Wei Che-ho (魏哲和) said that Taiwan could benefit from the relatively mature research environment created by Canada.

According to the NRC in August of last year, over the next five years Canada has earmarked NT$4.035 billion (US$120 million) to the institution, established at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, to promote areas in nanotechnology, a leading-edge, multi-disciplinary science that will have a profound impact on everything from health care to computer technology.

Canada's determination to carry its technological prowess into the nano era is similar to Taiwan's. Early this month, the NSC boosted investment in related fields over the next six years from NT$19.2 billion to NT$23 billion.

Similar national nanotechnology programs have been established in the US, Switzerland, Germany, the UK and Japan.

The president of the NRC, Arthur Carty, said that Canada was particularly interested in nanotechnology-related fields such as quantum computing, device and system manufacturing and nanobiology.

Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) yesterday stres-sed the importance of international scientific cooperation.

"Taiwan might be able to compete against big players in the process of globalization by working with other countries which share interests and goals with Taiwan," Lee said.
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