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NSC sets up division in Seoul

"Research projects that involve other countries are often superior to domestic ones because they have an expanded scope and greater human resources to draw from, receive higher influential index values and are more sensitive to international trends."

Yang Hung-duen, NSC deputy minister

The National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday it had taken another step forward in improving the quality of Taiwanese research with the establishment of a diplomatic science division in South Korea.

Starting this month, a Taiwanese "science ambassador," National Taiwan University's Institute of Applied Mechanics Professor Chou Chan-Shin (周傳心), will be stationed in Seoul, NSC deputy minister Yang Hung-duen (楊弘敦) said at a press conference yesterday.

"We have been expanding our diplomatic science divisions abroad by adding about one country a year over the past few years," Lin Kwang-lung (林光隆), head of the council's Department of International Cooperation said, citing Russia, Vietnam and the Czech Republic as examples.

Yang said that international collaboration was the missing element that had hindered local researchers from producing high-quality research projects. As such, the council is focusing on fostering joint research projects with other countries.

"Research projects that involve other countries are often superior to domestic ones because they have an expanded scope and greater human resources to draw from, receive higher influential index values and are more sensitive to international trends," Yang said.

cooperation

"If you look at scientifically advanced countries like France, Germany, or the UK, the percentage of their research papers that involve international cooperation is about 40 percent annually," Lin said. "But ours is plateauing at 18 percent -- a figure we are eager to improve upon."

"The message is clear -- today's top research scientists cannot afford to stay at home. They have to know what is going on out there," he said.

Lin said the establishment of diplomatic science divisions is only part of the council's grand scheme to network Taiwanese researchers with foreign agencies.

Over the past three years, the council has also signed 25 collaboration agreements with 16 countries, including Japan, India, New Zealand, Israel, Canada and Russia.

It has also joined several international science cooperation programs, such as the EU's Seventh Research Framework Program, he said.

The council has also set up a number of reciprocal award systems with foreign research institutions, such as the Tsungming Tu Award that was awarded to two German scientists last week, Lin said.

encouraging

"We have also realized that funds provision is not enough to stimulate cooperation between researchers," Yang said. "As such, we have been aggressively encouraging our researchers to attend international seminars to get to know professionals in their fields."

Yang called the council's new approach a change from the past, when the NSC traditionally spent most of its budget on purchasing equipment and building laboratory facilities.

"Taiwan today possesses state-of-the-art facilities in many areas -- now is the time to start investing in our research personnel," he said.
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