2016 ANNUAL REVIEW Ministry of Science and Technology

D. Research Results of the National Applied Research Laboratories Since it was established in 2003, the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs) has relied on the development of R&D platforms to support academic research, promote forward-looking technologies, and train scientific and technological manpower. While pursuing global excellence, NARLabs plays the role of an R&D platform provider with a goal of fostering domestic S&T manpower and economic innovation and vision of creating local value. Because the R&D platforms established by the ten experimental research units under NARLabs are usually larger and more costly than any single domestic university could undertake on its own, NARLabs is better able to provide academic researchers needed S&T research services, and enable research personnel at universities and research organizations to use superior, high-accuracy, high-efficiency instruments, facilities, and software modeling and analytical systems to develop forward- looking applied technologies. Furthermore, in order to enhance the effectiveness and industrialization value of S&T innovations, NARLabs has been actively promoting the application of R&D results. This takes the form of uncovering potential industry needs, and connecting industry with academic research units, which serves to boost industrial competitiveness. NARLabs also employs market analysis to harness the R&D capabilities of industry, academia, and research organizations in order to create key intellectual property portfolios and translate forward-looking R&D results into innovative industrial applications. Beamline experiments and user person-times statistics, 2007-2016 1,600 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Number of experimental projects Number of participants (person-times) 2008 2009 2007 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 President Tsai Ing-wen (6 th from right) and other VIPs visit TPS for the accelerator's inaugural ceremony on September 19, 2016. NARLabs' 2016 research results are summarized as follows in the four major areas of global environmental science, information and communications technology, biomedical technology platforms, and S&T policy: 1. Global Environmental Science The National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering's (NCREE) southern Taiwan experimental facility is expected to begin operation in 2017. This major, world-class research facility will have a mission of developing even better earthquake resistance and mitigation technologies, and gaining a better understanding of near-fault earthquake characteristics. NARLabs is currently employing the principles of buoyancy, connecting pipes, and flexible fiber optic gratings to construct a bridge fiber optic monitoring system suitable for long, multi-span bridges. Apart from use in bridge and elevated road safety monitoring, this system may also be used to monitor life support conduits and petroleum pipelines. NARLabs is applying experimental catchment area observation big data to develop a real-time flow automation estimation technique for rivers. This project is using microwave radar surface flow meter and radar water level meter data to accurately simulate and analyze downstream conditions, including whether flooding will occur, in real-time, which will assist in providing early warning. NARLabs is actively deploying an unmanned aircraft sounding system possessing automatic take-off, landing, and navigation control functions; the unmanned aircraft are able to complete long endurance (over 17 hours), long-distance (over 1,300 km) missions, and will be used in the future to collect meteorological data in MOST Ministry of Science and Technology Ministry of Science and Technology 58 2016 ANNUAL REVIEW