The Industrial Technology Research Institute is a non-profit

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 research institute

Research institute

A research institute is an establishment endowed for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research...

 located in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 under the supervision of the Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 Ministry of Economic Affairs

Ministry of Economic Affairs (Republic of China)

Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China is responsible for formulating policy and laws for industry and trade, foreign direct investment, energy, minerals, measurement standards, intellectual property, state-owned enterprises throughout the Free Area of the Republic of China. The...

. It conducts research and development in applied technologies to advance private sector growth. Founded in 1973, it gave birth to numerous key technologies now employed by the companies at the nearby Hsinchu Science Park

Hsinchu Science Park

Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park is an industrial park established by the government of the Republic of China on December 15, 1980 with investment from the Kuomintang. It straddles Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County on the island of Taiwan....

 and was instrumental in fostering the "Taiwan Miracle

Taiwan Miracle

The Taiwan Miracle or Taiwan Economic Miracle refers to the rapid industrialization and economic growth of Taiwan during the latter half of the twentieth century...

" and propelling Taiwan to become one of the "Four Asian Tigers".

History

ITRI was founded under the direction of Minister of Economic Affairs Sun Yun-suan

Sun Yun-suan

Sun Yun-suan was a Chinese engineer and politician. As minister of economic affairs from 1969 to 1978 and Premier of the Republic of China from 1978 to 1984, he was credited for overseeing the transformation of Taiwan from being a mainly agricultural economy to an export powerhouse.-Early life...

 and leadership of its first president Chao Chen Wang. A driving motivation was to transform Taiwan's existing export industries, which were developed in the 1960s and centered on textiles, shoes, plastic toys, and agriculture, to the more sustainable fields of petrochemicals, machine tools, and electronics.

ITRI played a key role in creating the semiconductor

Semiconductor industry

The semiconductor industry is the aggregate collection of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices. It formed around 1960, once the fabrication of semiconductors became a viable business...

 and electronics industry in Taiwan. United Microelectronics Corporation

United Microelectronics Corporation

UMC was founded as Taiwan's first semiconductor company in 1980 as a spin-off of the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute .-Overview:...

 (UMC), spun off from the ERSO division of ITRI, was launched in 1980 in Hsinchu Science Park. It was Taiwan's first mainstream semiconductor company. UMC was followed by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in 1986, the Taiwan Mask Corporation in 1988, and the Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation

Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation is a specialized IC foundry service provider. It is founded in December 1994 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, by Morris Chang...

 in 1994. TSMC's first semiconductor wafer fabrication plant was setup on the ITRI campus in 1985. TSMC Chairman Morris Chang

Morris Chang

Morris Chang , is the founding Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. in 1987. TSMC pioneered the "dedicated silicon foundry" industry and is the largest silicon foundry in the world. Morris is known as the father of Taiwan's chip industry.Chang was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang...

 was concurrently Chairman and President of ITRI from 1986 to 1994.

Operations

With over 6,000 employees and an operating budget of about US$510 million (half from the MOEA and half from private sources), ITRI is the largest research institute in Taiwan. The largest ITRI campus is at Jhudong

Zhudong, Hsinchu

Zhudong is an urban township in central Hsinchu County, Taiwan. Part of Hsinchu Science Park is in Zhudong. Also located in Zhudong is the main campus of the Industrial Technology Research Institute...

, Hsinchu County

Hsinchu County

Hsinchu County is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; there is a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the capital of Hsinchu, where the government office and county office is located...

 (the Chung-Hsing Campus). ITRI also has smaller research campuses in Hsinchu City

Hsinchu

Hsinchu City is a city in northern Taiwan. Hsinchu is popularly nicknamed "The Windy City" for its windy climate.Hsinchu City is administered as a special municipality within Taiwan . The city is bordered by Hsinchu County to the north and east, Miaoli County to the south, and the Taiwan Strait...

 (the Guangfu Campus) and Tainan

Tainan

Tainan City is a city in southern Taiwan. It is the fifth largest after New Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. It was formerly a provincial city, and in 2010, the provincial city merged with the adjacent Tainan County to form a single special municipality. Tainan faces the Taiwan Strait in...

 (the Southern Branch). ITRI maintains overseas offices in San Jose

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, and Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.

The core of ITRI's operations consist of basic research and development conducted in various applied technologies. Most of the research staff at ITRI have graduate degrees. Research projects are conducted with close cooperation and partial funding from small and medium-sized companies. The results of the research are transferred to these sponsors for further development and eventual manufacture for industry. Some successful research units have spun off into successful companies of their own.

In addition to its own research units, ITRI rents out and provides logistical support to fledgling industrial enterprises (including its own spin-offs) at its "Incubation Center" and Open Laboratory program. ITRI also has an international division to seek out partners for the benefit of Taiwanese industries. ITRI has signed research alliances with leading foreign companies and universities such as Lucent Technologies

Lucent Technologies

Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

, MIT and the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan

Liu Chao-shiuan

Liu Chao-shiuan is a Taiwanese educator and politician. He is a former president of the National Tsing Hua University and Soochow University and a former Premier of the Republic of China.-Biography:...

said that the government-financed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) will help domestic manufacturers churn out some 100,000 electric motorcycles in four years.

Organization

ITRI is organized into six core laboratories, five focus centers, several linkage centers, and various other supporting units.

Core Laboratories:

• Biomedical Engineering Research Laboratories (BEL)
• Electronics and Optoelectronics Research Laboratories (EOL)
• Energy and Environment Research Laboratories (EEL)
• Information and Communications Research Laboratories (ICL)
• Material and Chemical Research Laboratories (MCL)
• Mechanical and Systems Research Laboratories (MSL)

Focus Centers:

• Display Technology Center (DTC)
• Medical Electronics and Device Technology Center (MEDTC)
• Photovoltaics Technology Center (PVTC)
• RFID Technology Center (RTC)
• SoC Technology Center (STC)

Linkage Centers:

• Center for Measurement Standards (CMS)
• Creativity Lab
• Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK)
• Nano Technology Research Center (NTRC)
• Technology Center for Service Industries (TCSI)

Business Development Units:

• International Business Center (IBC)
• Technology Transfer and Service Center (TTSC)

Other Supporting Units:

• Administrative Service Center (ASC)
• Accounting Resource Center (ARC)
• Information Service Center (ISC)
• Headquarters: Office of Planning, Auditing Office, Legal Affairs Office, Treasury Office, Human Resources Office