ITRI Open Lab Collaboration

ITRI Open Lab Collaboration — Engagement

Supports bilateral innovation teams conducting applied projects with ITRI laboratories across technology fields.

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is Taiwan's largest applied-technology research organisation, founded in 1973 and headquartered in Hsinchu County, with a staff of more than 6,500 researchers. ITRI pioneered Taiwan's semiconductor industry — spinning off UMC in 1981 and TSMC in 1987 — and has since expanded its mandate across semiconductors, ICT, biomedical technology, advanced materials, green energy, smart manufacturing, and AI. Named to Clarivate's Top 100 Global Innovators list for the tenth consecutive time as of 2026 and winner of 69 R&D 100 Awards over 18 consecutive years (2008–2025), ITRI serves as a key bridge between government-funded research and industry commercialisation. The Open Lab Collaboration programme makes ITRI's laboratories and research capabilities directly accessible to external partners on a continuous, rolling basis.

Under the Open Lab Collaboration model, companies, universities, and research organisations approach the relevant ITRI laboratory or the ITRI Services portal to define a joint project. ITRI offers a broad menu of services including contract research, small-scale pilot production, process improvement, calibration and measurement, technology transfer, and IP value-added work. Scope, deliverables, IP ownership, and pricing are negotiated bilaterally on a case-by-case basis; there is no published scoring rubric or competitive selection round. ITRI's overseas offices in the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, and Thailand facilitate international partnership inquiries, enabling foreign-headquartered organisations to engage through these outposts.

For-profit companies, universities, and research institutions operating in Taiwan are eligible to engage directly with ITRI labs. Foreign organisations are encouraged to initiate contact through ITRI's overseas offices. There is no fixed call schedule or application window; engagements are initiated on a rolling basis by reaching out to the relevant laboratory. Organisations in semiconductors, ICT, biomedical, advanced materials, clean energy, and smart manufacturing are natural fits given ITRI's core strategic R&D domains of Smart Living, Quality Health, Sustainable Environment, and Resilient Society.