In order to cultivate biotechnology talent and deepen the collaboration between industry and academia, Eastern Group will donate a “Biotechnology Building” to National Taiwan University (NTU), which will cover an area of around 23,141 square meters. Yesterday (27th), Chairman Gary Wang and NTU President Kuan Chung-Ming signed the “Letter of Intent for Biotechnology Building Donation and Industry-Academia Collaboration”. The construction of the building is expected to start within three years and completed within six years. The use of the building will be shared by the Department of Biochemical Science & Technology and the Institute of Fisheries Science, both under the College of Life Science, National Taiwan University. Furthermore, a “NTU-Eastern Industry-Academia Research and Development Center” will be set up to jointly nurture talent in biotechnology- and agriculture-related fields. In addition, Eastern Group’s Eastern Natural Beauty, Eckare, and Eastern Farm under ETMall will also take the opportunity to deepen industry-academia collaboration, refine product development, and provide better customer services to our members.
In the past, there has been a lot of cooperation between Eastern and NTU departments. For example, President Gary Wang has established the “ETMall Gary Wang Scholarship” to sponsor outstanding students from NTU since 2003. The biochemistry and agricultural technology departments of NTU have always been leaders in Taiwan’s academic fields. NTU has various production parks, such as greenhouses, flatland farms, mountain farms at an altitude of over 2,000 meters above sea level, and the NTU Experimental Forests. Gary Wang said, “Many agricultural products were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, and the export of these products has been hampered. During this period, in addition to offering our platforms for public welfare to help young farmers and small farmers, we also discovered that our knowledge and technical expertise in agri-food was insufficient. Therefore, we hope that the professors of NTU can provide their expertise on relevant research, which will be very beneficial in quality control, production, and marketing in the future.”
Since the launch of the “Eastern Farm” series in 2018, many county and city mayors have been using TV shopping and e-commerce platforms to promote local agricultural products, and the results of each sales event have been impressive. Gary Wang believes that the company can help farmers on a sustainable basis in the future. Therefore, in November last year, ETMall held its first academic exchange with the College of Bioresources and Agriculture of National Taiwan University. It is hoped that this act can help to promote collaboration between industry and academia, in order to help farmers increase the scale of production and sell quality fresh fruits and vegetables, agricultural, and fishery products to help them tide over these difficult times.
Kuan Chung-Ming, President of National Taiwan University, said: “Continuing the discussion from the last meeting between NTU and Eastern, we have reached the stage of signing a letter of intent for cooperation today. In promoting academic research, NTU has always placed great emphasis on social responsibility and collaboration with industry. In the future, Eastern Group and the College of Life Science and the College of Bioresources and Agriculture of the National Taiwan University will begin a very diversified and comprehensive industry-academia partnership. Eastern Group also expressed their interest in donating a building for the departments under the College of Life Science. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Eastern Group and President Wang, and I hope that in the future, there will be many more opportunities for NTU faculty and students to participate in various industries and create more opportunities for everyone at NTU.”
Chou Chia-Pei, Executive Vice President of National Taiwan University, said: “As a university, we all want scientific research to be relatively practical, and NTU continues to engage in industry-academia collaboration with major domestic enterprises. This time, NTU is very pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with Eastern Group. The opportunity to cooperate began when professors from NTU were appointed as advisors by Eastern Group, and during the collaboration period, both sides were of the opinion that any good research that is carried out should be supported by a proper research center. As a result, we can see the successful outcome through the letter of intent signed by both parties today. In the future, the collaboration will cover areas studied by the College of Life Science and the College of Bioresources and Agriculture. I believe that the research and development conducted by these two faculties are in line with the direction that Eastern wants to take. The current basic planning of the biotechnology building is not only for teaching and research at National Taiwan University, but is also expected to be planned as an industry-academia research center for Eastern.”
President Gary Wang said: “Eastern and NTU are well-known Taiwanese brands that are trusted and loved by the public. The collaboration between Eastern and NTU will enable Eastern to introduce themselves on the world stage and interact with the global players in the new retail sector. National Taiwan University is the top academic institution of Taiwan and the center of scientific research and development in Taiwan. The spirit of EHS Select is ‘customer comes first’, being committed to the high quality products, engaging in innovation and change, and ensuring supply to consumers, so that consumers can eat and use the products with happiness, health, and beauty. The collaboration between Eastern and NTU will be on either short, medium, and long term basis as required. In fact, we have already been collaborating with the NTU Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering in the research of big data, and we have also started a collaboration on Eastern’s HAUMANU capsules with the research institutes under the College of Life Science. In the future, we will cooperate more extensively with the College of Bioresources and Agriculture and other colleges and departments, including for Eastern Farm, Eastern health supplements, Eastern ready-made meals, and Eastern health foods. I am confident that with the formidable scientific research foundation of NTU, we can provide consumers with safer products and better health. Both parties have already reached a consensus on the donation of the biotechnology building, which has a floor space of around 23,141 square meters. Eastern Group will be responsible for the construction of the building, which has an initial estimated cost between NT$1 billion to NT$2 billion. This building will be the firm foundation for our industry-academia collaboration. The strong brand power of NTU and the high reliability of the Eastern brand will allow NTU and Eastern to deepen industry-academia collaboration in the future, so that academia and industry can be more closely integrated to produce better products. If the collaboration is successful, I believe it will be greatly beneficial for NTU students and consumers.”