A letter reportedly leaked by National Taiwan University (NTU) officials yesterday said that university professor Kuo Min-liang (郭明良), who has been embroiled in an academic fraud scandal since November last year, is eligible for a NT$2.5 million (US$80,515) Taiwan Bio-Development Foundation grant.
The letter, addressed to the foundation, said that the university had requested NT$17.5 million for Kuo and six other professors who serve as lecturers at the foundation, with each professor entitled to a NT$2.5 million grant.
Under the foundation’s rules, Kuo can receive NT$2.5 million every year for 10 years.
Kuo, who last year said he had resigned as a professor after the scandal erupted, has remained in his teaching position, the letter said.
“The National Taiwan University Personnel Office has confirmed that all aforementioned award recipients are current members of its teaching or research staff,” the letter said.
The foundation is financed by a group of corporations, including Ruentex Group and Fubon Financial Holding Co.
Former Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) — who was last month charged with corruption for allegedly accepting 3,000 OBI Pharma shares in exchange for a cancer vaccine technology he developed — is the foundation’s president, while National Taiwan University president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) is on its board of directors.
Yang is accused of being involved in suspected academic fraud, after online academic forum PubPeer found that he co-wrote four papers supervised by Kuo, which are suspected to have used falsified research.
Academia Sinica research fellow Juan Li-jung (阮麗蓉) posted the letter on Facebook and called on the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education and the foundation to bar Kuo from receiving the grant.
She also launched a petition urging academics to protest against the ministries, which she said had acquiesced to Kuo’s claim.
The petition is seeking 30,000 signatures from academics who are asked to list their names and the institutes they work for.
If the petition passes the threshold, an on-paper signature drive and a rally would be launched to press the ministries to take measures against NTU academics involved in the alleged scandal, Juan said.
The university said that requesting grants from the foundation is an annual procedure and that Kuo was included because “paperwork regarding his departure has yet to be completed,” adding that the grant has yet to be transferred into its account.
The university said it has forwarded its investigation to the foundation to be used as a reference when deciding whether to issue Kuo a grant.
Kuo’s future would be decided after an investigation is completed, the university said.
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