Two of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ research arms won a total of seven R&D 100 Awards this year, R&D Magazine reported.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) won six of the research and development awards, while the Institute for Information Industry (III, 資策會) won one, the magazine said.
With six awards, the ITRI ranked second only to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which won seven.
The Hsinchu-based institute edged out four US-based labs — Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California; MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts; and Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico — which each won four awards, according to the results released on June 20.
This year has been the most fruitful year for the ITRI since it first joined the R&D Magazine competition in 2008, the ministry said. Last year the institute won four awards.
The ministry said that some of the ITRI’s winning technologies have been transferred to domestic manufacturers for production, but some are still under negotiation.
Over the past 50 years, the R&D 100 Awards — dubbed the “Oscars of Innovation” — have identified revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market. Many of these have become household names, including the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the Nicoderm anti-smoking patch (1992) and HDTV (1998).
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