This year marks the 50th anniversary of ITRI, which is a very significant milestone. In the past five decades, ITRI has played a pivotal role in helping Taiwan’s industries transition from a labor-intensive structure to a technology-driven, high-tech powerhouse and played an important role at the turning points of numerous industrial transformations. Our commitment to technology R&D allows ITRI to stimulate industry development, create economic value, and increase social welfare. To address recent world challenges such as global supply chain restructuring and international net-zero emission trends, ITRI focuses on conducting marketoriented R&D, serving as an effective bridge between the industry, academia, and research sectors, and assisting in industrial transformation and upgrading. By continuously leveraging our innovative cross-domain R&D capabilities, we help industries boost competitiveness and social resilience.
The Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) plays a crucial and diverse role in this mission. As the government’s industrial think tank, ISTI is obligated to propose national-level industry initiatives and gently nudge their implementations. As a corporate management consultant, ISTI is expected to build trusting relationships with clients by providing on-point analysis and clear strategies. As a hub for international technology collaborations, ISTI is committed to building bridges and platforms to proactively foster global cooperation and increase Taiwan’s impact on the international stage.
ISTI is very grateful for the support and assistance we have received since ourestablishment, especially for the research foundation resources provided by the Department of Industrial Technology, MOEA. These resources led to the formation of Industry & Technology Intelligence Services (ITIS) and enabled ISTI to assume the crucial responsibility of providing the most recent data concerning markets, industries, and technology to private companies (especially SMEs) and the overall society.
In the spirit of giving back to Taiwan’s industries, ISTI has been assembling experts from different fields every year since 2013 to research major industry and technology issues Taiwan should pay attention to in the following five years. The conclusions are compiled in the annual publication IEKTopics, which offers the latest industry trends and changes to all sectors. The themes of the past issues are as follows:
- 2022: 2022 People Behavior Study in Taiwan for Net-Zero Sustainability
- 2021: International Linkage: Resilient for Co-Innovation, Sustainable for Co-Prosperity
- 2020: Resilient Ecosystem: Cross-domain Value Creation and Talent for Pilot
- 2019: Ecosystem Creation: Science-Technology Value-added to Converging Services
- 2018: 2030 Advanced Technology from an Asian Perspective
- 2017: Sustainability: Circular Regeneration for Innovation Economy
- 2016: Solve Problem: Smart Innovation, Happy City
- 2015: Driving IoT at Full Steam for First-Mover Advantages
- 2014: Triumph in Future: Envision Lifestyle to Lead Innovation
- 2013: Rally to Victory: Advanced Manufacturing as New Power for Taiwan
To approach the next 50 years with a market-oriented perspective and assist the industries in transitioning from technological innovation to value innovation, ISTI established a methodology to explore mega trends that can steer the deployment of ITRI’s R&D strategies. The process and key results are compiled into the 2023 issue Moving Forward 2035: 10 Mega Trends to Reshape Our World to help ITRI and other sectors allocate R&D resources early on and maintain our industry competitiveness edge.
The title of this issue was inspired by the iconic phrase “RUN! Don’t Walk!” spoken by Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang during the graduation ceremony at National Taiwan University. This line symbolizes the pursuit of speed, innovation, and a forward-looking spirit, which is the exact mindset of ITRI for the coming 50 years.
Following our research methodology, ISTI regularly monitors the key drivers of change highlighted by international organizations and benchmark think tanks to effectively comprehend crucial changes in future trends. The requirements of the key drivers of change are collected and forwarded to local experts in key areas for professional feedback. The results are later categorized into 10 mega trends: Digital Empowerment, Phygital World, Mobility Revolution, Successful Aging, HealthEvolution, Decarbonized Energy, Low-Carbon Lifestyle, Resource Circulation, Agile Governance, and Resilient Cities and Rural Areas.
This year, we also invited several global science and technology research organizations that have close interactions with ITRI to contribute their thoughts and make our discussion on the 10 mega trends more comprehensive. European organizations invited include the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the UK National Innovation Centre Ageing (NICA), the UK Digital Catapult Centre, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and German Aerospace Center (DLR). From Japan, we have the NationalInstitute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology (NCGG), Mitsubishi Electric, and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES). North American participants include the US' University of California, Berkeley, and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). ISTI is grateful to our global partners for providing international perspectives on the 10 mega trends and enriching the content of this issue.
On the other hand, to ensure the local relevance of the 10 mega trends, we conducted the survey " Taiwan's Cross-Generational Portrait of Lifestyles in 2035". Survey results show that the local population needs and wants a sense of safety and security in technology disaster prevention and health protection and care, and that enhancing our capacity for disaster prevention and response in the future and creating a comprehensive resilient society are Taiwan’s top priorities.
We drew up the scenarios in 2035 after the exchange of different perspectives and updated the ITRI 2035 Technology Strategy & Roadmap accordingly. The domain of Resilient Society (using technology to reduce risks and let the society grow steadily) was added to join the domains of Smart Living (using smart technology to create new lifestyles and happiness), Quality Health (making life better with advanced medical care), and Sustainable Environment (building a sustainable future with technological innovation) to better ITRI's R&D plans.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the local and international communities for their support of the 2023 edition. ISTI will continue to dedicate its next 50 years to proposing strategic recommendations backed by industrial research and international cooperations to help boost Taiwan's technology capacity and global competitiveness.
