On April 9, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Tainan Textile Co., Ltd. held the unveiling ceremony of the Technology R&D Center of Academic and Industrial Integration between Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Tainan Textile. The two parties jointly developed high-value polyester research and development technology to cultivate talents in line with industry trends, giving due assistance to regional industries and enhance market competitiveness and deep chemical exchanges.

【The opening ceremony of the Technology R&D Center of Academic and Industrial Integration between Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Tainan Textile invited the chief officers of the school and the guests of the Tainan Textile to take a group photo.】

Polyester (PET) fiber is currently the most important synthetic fiber in the world, accounting for 81% of the total synthetic fiber, but the production capacity of the fiber is still not good enough in a global scale. New capacity continues to increase, but then the demand is yet to follow up, resulting in a serious gap between capacity and demand. Therefore, it is no longer possible in the future to rely on the advantage of mass production and price competition. The polyester fiber industry must correct the traditional development model in expanding the scale of the industry and reducing the cost in the past, change the development of high value, transform from production orientation to innovative application industry, and introduce circular economy. Only the concept of improving energy resource utilization and reducing environmental pollution can continue to benefit from the development of niche markets.

【The opening ceremony of the Technology R&D Center of Academic and Industrial Integration between Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Tainan Textile invited Chairman Bo-Ming Hou of the Board of Directors of Tainan Textile Company (second from left), General Manager Hong-Mo Chen (first from left), and Chairman Hsin-Hsiong Chang of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology(second from right) and President Deng-Maw Lu (first from right) to take a group photo in the opening ceremony.】

Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Tainan Textile are both affiliate entities of the Great Tainan Group. Through the implementation of relevant cooperation plans in the past, they have cultivated a good understanding. The Department of Applied Chemistry, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, added more research and development equipment when it entered the new department in August last year. At the moment, the establishment of the industry-university cooperation in technology research and development was the best opportunity to extend the long-term stable cooperative relationship for them to work together in developing high-valued polyester fiber. The key technology of the industry and the development of new functional polyester products made it possible for the university to introduce abundant research and development energy into the enterprise, and the university was enabled to understand the latest pulse of the industry through the enterprise, cultivate the industrial competitiveness talents, and create the company's sustainable management and R&D talent cultivation. It resulted in a win-win situation.

【President Deng-Maw Lu of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology was delivering a speech.】

Chairman Hsin-Hsiong Chang of the Board of Directors of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology said that he was very pleased to see the establishment of the technology research and development co-construction center. He thanked Tainan Textile Company for providing this opportunity and President Deng-Maw Lu for his upholding the determination of the first-class university in STUST. The coordination of the two parties will promote further cooperation between the two sides. Based on the organizational structure and implementation content of the co-construction center, it not only facilitated the cooperation between the two parties to develop new high-value materials and application products, but also made it possible for them to sharing publications, equipment, internship opportunities for students. The depth and breadth of such cooperation is showing the close cooperation and resource sharing between the university and the company. Under the trend of birth decline in Taiwan, the difficulty of enrolling students and the shortage of new employees in enterprises are becoming more and more serious. Today, the operation of the technology research and development center will serve as a bridge between schools and enterprises, providing a relief for the problem of derivation. These options can be used as a reference for all walks of life.

【Chairman Hsin-Hsiong Chang of the Board of Directors of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology was delivering a speech.】

o-Ming Hou, Chairman and Strategy Director of Tainan Textile said that under the leadership of San-Lian Wu, Shiu-Chi We and Gao-Hui Zheng, Taiwan Textile has entered its 63rd year, and its principle of "three good and one fair" has indeed taken root, sprouted, and expanded. This is in line with STUST’S adherence to the school motto “Being Faithful, Righteous, and Honest” as the university has become the sixth university of science and technology in the nation and the best private university of science and technology. Tainan Textile attaches great importance to the promotion of this industry-university joint research and development center, greatly convinced that it will make the past good cooperation become more stable.

【Bo-Ming Hou, Chairman of Tainan Textile Company, was delivering a speech.】

General Manager of Tainan Textile, Hong-Mo Chen, said that Tainan Textile has a sound legal system, perfect welfare, smooth communication channels, diversified learning development, and complete education and training system. The main operating items are spinning and chemical fiber. The product quality is not only internationally renowned. The scale of operation is more in the hands of the textile industry, and the investment projects, such as circulation, construction, finance, and chemical biotechnology are more abundant. Based on past stable cooperative relations last year, Tainan Textile set up a cooperation class for automation international production at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology. In particular, the resources of its Vietnam General Factory will make it a new specialization class for the Ministry of Education—a model of successful output, indeed. Through the establishment of the industry-university joint research and development center, Tainan Textile and its STUSY—its sister entity—will cooperate closely.

【Hong-Mo Chen, General Manager of Tainan Textile Company, was delivering a speech.】

President Deng-Maw of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology also said that he was very grateful to Tainan Textile Company for its support during the preparatory stage of the technology research and development co-construction center. The university also actively integrated various resources and carried out its overall planning to promote school affairs. Taking the Higher Education Program and Sprout Program as an example, the Ministry of Education requires all universities and colleges to develop their own characteristics according to their own advantages and to cooperate with social trends and industrial needs to innovate teaching methods. Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology has thus received a subsidy of up to NT$ 170 million for its private use. STUST has become the first in terms of private university of science and technology as well as the sixth nationwide. Therefore, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology uses the Higher Education Program and the Sprout Program funds to establish the infrastructure of the R&D and co-construction center, aiming at improving students' key basic capabilities and practical ability, and it will also use the promotion of the R&D co-construction center to strengthen the innovative teaching of the curriculum and student internship participation.

President Lu further stated that the co-construction center is promoted on a three-year basis. The objective is to develop green environmental materials and applied products in response to the government's “circular economy” initiative. According to the government's "circular economy" promotion plan, the R&D, talents, production technology, and development cycle has to establish a "recycling economy" new materials industry will be established. Therefore, the objective of research and development is to develop biodegradable materials technology and application products to meet high requirements and the characteristics of circular economy, such as value, high performance, non-toxicity and zero waste. For example, agricultural plastic film or non-woven products that are common nowadays cannot be decomposed after being used in agricultural land, causing environmental burden. If biodegradable materials can be used, the problem of environmental pollution of waste can be eventually solved.