The Delegation of "2019 American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and Taipei Economic and Cultural representative office in the U.S. (TECRO) Science and Technology Collaborative Meeting” from Taiwan led by Minister Liang-Gee Chen, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, held meetings at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on July 16, 2019. The discussions in the meeting focused on directions of future collaborations and mechanisms to promote and strengthen bilateral collaborations between Taiwan and the United States. In addition, Minister Chen also met with high ranking officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation of the United States (NSF) separately to foster cooperation. The U.S. side is very positive about the status and achievements of the Taiwan-U.S. scientific and technological partnership, and is willing to continue to expand bilateral scientific and technological exchanges and collaborations .

After the opening ceremony of the Bilateral Collaborative Meeting at the NIH this morning, the Minister met with the Principal Deputy Director of NIH, Dr. Lawrence Tabak.  In addition to the original cooperation plans and post-doctoral training, they planned to have a technical workshop in the future. Minister Chen then went to NOAA and had a meeting with  Assistant Administrator Dr. Stephen Volz and senior executives from various departments and exchanged views on Space and Ocean issues following the successful launch of the FORMOSAT-7 satellites in Florida last month.

In the afternoon, Minister Chen and the others went to NSF to meet with Director France A. Córdova, Assistant Director Dr. William E. Easterling of Directorate for Geosciences, Assistant Director Dr. Anne L. Kinney of Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. All acknowledged the successful performance of past bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and the United States, such as the ALMA, EAPSI, PIRE and EHT Program.  To support the continuous partnership, Dr. Córdova briefly introduced the 10 Big ideas on technology research and development, the budget, and program grants that are currently ongoing in NSF. They exchanged views, and will continue to work together on possible scientific and technological endeavors in the future.

With the assistance of the Science and Technology Division, TECRO, the collaborative meeting was held at The Lawton Chiles International House on the NIH Campus, Deputy Director for Intramural Research Dr. Michael M. Gottesman and Minister Chen co-chaired the opening ceremony. The three collaborative topics discussed were the Brain Therapy and Research, Stem Cell, and Regenerative Medicine and Microbiome Research and its application.

After fully booked visits and discussions throughout the day, Ambassador Stanley Kao, the Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural representative office in the U.S. (TECRO) personally hosted a banquet to welcome Minister Chen and all the delegation members at the Twin Oaks Estate. They had many exchanges with the participants in the science and technology communities from academia, industry and the doctoral students sponsored by MOST’s LEAP program in the Greater Washington region.

Media Contact

Sidney Lu
Senior Officer, Science and Technology Division
Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States
Tel: +12028951931
E-mail: hhlu@nstc.gov.tw