2016 ANNUAL REVIEW Ministry of Science and Technology

After signing a MOU calling for cooperation with Stanford University in the training of new- generation biomedical manpower for Taiwan, STPI again engaged in cooperation with Stanford University in late May for the purpose of training prestigious high-level policy research scholars. Starting in 2017, STPI will select one scholar each year to perform visiting research at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, which will serve to train Taiwan's high-level policy research and planning personnel. This instance of cooperation will help Taiwan's humanities and social science scholars to engage in interchange with top international figures, which is expected to stimulate new perspectives and yield empirical research results concerning some of the key social issues currently faced by Taiwan. h. Taiwan-Japan cooperation: Long-term friendship As instructed by MOST, the Supra Integration and Incubation Center (Si2C) and STPI are jointly implementing the "SPARK Taiwan Biomedical Translation Value-Added Manpower Training Project" (SPARK Taiwan). During the period of March 7-11, Chuang Yu-tze, the project's principal investigator and STPI director, led faculty advisors from six anchor universities, namely National Taiwan University, National Cheng Kung University, Taipei Medical University, National Yang Ming University, China Medical University, and National Tsinghua University, on interchange visits to key universities in Japan. These visits had the purpose of sharing the biomedical R&D results translation and commercialization experience of Taiwan and Japan, discussing future topics and directions for cooperation between the two parties, and strengthening online contact between domestic anchor universities and foreign biomedical firms, which will facilitate the expansion of product sales channels. (9) Taiwan Ocean Research Institute a. Long-term South China Sea biological/geological/ chemical observation at SEATS The Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) has been monitoring the impact of extreme climate conditions on the South China Sea—the world's largest marginal sea—at the South East Asia Time- Series Station (SEATS). Apart from performing physical oceanography, chemistry and isotope ratio, and bioinformation analysis of sediment composition and sources, this project is also using anchored sediment particle collectors to perform continuous, long-term specimen collection. b. Inshore marine organism long-term ecological observation network The inshore marine organism long-term ecological observation network seeks to investigate the effect of various environmental parameters on organisms and the ecology through the integration of biological and water quality data. The focus of current work is on the waters around the island of Xiao Liuqiu. Preliminary results have included the fact that the inshore water temperature near Xiao Liuqiu decreases as the tide rises; although there were many reports of coral bleaching worldwide during 2016, the coral reefs around Xiao Liuqiu have remained unscathed, which may be due to this cooling phenomenon. The coral reefs near Little Liuqiu have experienced only sporadic bleaching An anchored collector is prepared on the deck of SEATS Support for Academic Research Ministry of Science and Technology 69