On April 1 the National Science Council formally announced that Chinese-American physicist Ip Wing-huen, who has taken part in the NASA space program, would head up the R.O.C.'s satellite program. Now that it has a director, the council's National Space Program Office is preparing to help Taiwan make its first big stride forward in aerospace research.
A research program into high-temperature superconductors, which promise to launch a third industrial revolution, has entered its third year at National Tsing Hua University under the leadership of Wu Mao-kun, who has engaged in breakthrough research into new super conductive materials with noted physicist Paul Chu.
In addition, work is being completed on five national laboratories, budgeted in the billions. The largest among them, the Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, has already had scientists from Australia and other countries around the world express interest in applying to use it, while blueprints are nearly finished for the High-Temperature Super-conductor Laboratory and the Space Science Research Center.
Ready to take off: Besides the marshalling of expertise and hardware just mentioned, research and development in a number of midstream industries is getting a big boost forward.
Planning has been completed on a second science-based industrial park, designed to be a future stronghold of high-tech industry. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is promoting the development of 64 promising key technologies such as liquid crystal displays and compact disk drives. In addition, as soon as it was set up last April, the Taiwan Aerospace Corporation, a major force in the upper-stream aerospace industry, began carrying out technology transfer with its strong capital backing.
The world of science and technology is indeed brimming with potential and ready to take off. The Long-Range Twelve-Year Plan for National Scientific and Technological Development drawn up by the National Science Council lists a number of goals for strengthening science and technology and confidently predicts that in 12 years' time the R.O.C. will rank among the top ten scientific and technological nations in the world.
Just what are the qualifications for being a world power in science and technology? And what is our present strength?
Stepping out of the ivory tower: Back in the 1960s, when our economy hadn't yet taken off and we still lacked foreign exchange reserves, the government boldly allocated some US$1 million in setting up the National Science Council to help foster topnotch scientists and technicians. Today, in the science and technology criteria (see table) used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we rank 14th in the world in terms of annual number of engineering dissertations and 15th in terms of per capita Ph.D. and master degree holders.
An abundance of first-rate engineers has been a decisive factor in the rapid success of Taiwan's computer and information industries during the past decade, while the growth in dissertations and doctorates represents "income" that Taiwan has invested in science and technology. The problem is that even more critical factors in evaluating a country's strength in science and technology are the role and influence they play in the system of development of the country as a whole. As an example, Den Chi-fu, a professor at National Chiao Tung University, cites India, which has strong basic science, produces many Ph.D.s and far exceeds us in the number of papers published in international academic journals, but which has been unable to raise the quality of life of its citizens, where the electronics industry has been developed for decades without ever getting off the ground and where many airports are still not computerized. . . .
"If a country wants to follow a path of rational development, it's not enough just to turn out a lot of Ph.D.s," Professor Den says. Science and technology aren't effective unless they are coupled with management and marketing. Otherwise, no matter how much research goes on, it remains merely the product of an ivory tower.
Not a happiness index: In fact, due to differences in national form and definition, countries differ in their strategies for engaging in science and technology and in the fields scientific and technological strength is reflected in, making it difficult to rank one above the other.
In Europe, many countries that have achieved a certain level of economic development have devoted more and more resources to advancing technology in medicine, environmental protection and other areas related to public welfare rather than engaging in the all-out pursuit of economic strength or military power. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, lagged way behind Europe, North America and Japan in developing consumer-oriented technology, but it was undeniably a scientific and technological power in terms of its achievements in military research and development.
"Every country is at a different stage of development. An index can help you find out where you stand and build self-confidence or make you pause, reflect and try harder," says Lin Ho, head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at National Taiwan University. "But an index for science and technology isn't a gauge of happiness and well being!"
Which indicators is our science and technology development based on?
The National Science Council's Twelve-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological Development identifies its four main goals as upgrading science and technology, advancing economic development, raising the public's quality of life and establishing an independent national defense.
In the past, scientific and technological development was clearly aimed at increasing our per capita income, but now that the economy has taken off, "raising the quality of life is the most pressing task at hand," says Ma Nan-hsien, director of planning and evaluation at the National Science Council. The proportion of resources devoted to environmental and medical research, such as developing better waste processing technology or setting up a National Health Research Institute, will constantly increase.
Increasing polarization: Hu Chin-piao, vice chairman of the National Science Council, says that not all countries are pursuing the same goals, but it cannot be denied that Taiwan, despite its present economic strength, is surrounded by competitive rivals, and for that reason scientific activity and investment still has to be focused on developing technologies that will produce greater income.
"We cannot overlook the competitive ability of industries with an immediate need to establish themselves on the world market." Unless we upgrade science and technology enough to strengthen our competitive ability and break away from our reliance in key technologies on Japan and the United States, he says, we'll never be in a position to improve our quality of life or and national defense.
Shih Yen-shiang, a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former director of the Science and Technology Advisory Group in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, agrees. Given our present situation, he believes, we should try to strengthen applied science and technology as much as possible, even in upper-stream research. "We've got to beef up our ability in applied science and technology before we can turn around and feed back basic research." Japan, for instance, has begun to stress basic research only now that it has established itself as a fearsome economic powerhouse based on its strength in industrial technology and development.
In particular, the influence of applied science on technological development has led to increasing global polarization--countries with advanced science and technology are becoming increasingly wealthy as they turn out products with high profit margins, leading to greater economic growth and improvements in their quality of life, while countries that are weak in science and technology have had to spend a correspondingly greater amount in exchange for them, leading to sluggish economies and poorer living conditions.
That's why developing countries with even the most modest economies all want to engage in R&D and improve their strength in science and technology--to keep up with the advanced countries and avoid falling into the vicious cycle of increasing polarization.
R&D expenditures on the rise: Korea, which in many areas is viewed as arrival of ours, allocated US$80 billion last year toward a program for the comprehensive renovation of its science, technology and industry.
Not wanting to be outdone, we've struck back with research into high-temperature superconductors, with setting up a software industrial park, with the priority development of liquid crystal displays and compact disk drives. . . . After last year's Fourth National Conference on Science and Technology, the National Science Council drew up a NT$400 billion six-year mid-range plan. The council's chairman, Sha Hann-min, says that raising expenditures on research is the prime task in the nation's development of science and technology.
The three countries that currently devote the greatest proportion of their gross national product to research and development are the United States, Germany and Japan, each with nearly 3 percent. We spend just 1.3 percent. Owing to political factors, the R.O.C. and South Korea have never included defense R&D expenditures in the total, so neither can be compared with the advanced countries--but we are still 0.6 percent behind Korea.
Comparing against ourselves, however--against figures for previous years since 1981--R&D expenditures in science and technology have grown substantially, and the annual budget in education, science and culture has swelled more than fourfold.
Ma Nan-hsien, director of planning and evaluation at the National Science Council, says that heavy investment in R&D is a prerequisite for successful national development in the modern world, and that the United States, Japan and Germany would never have become the powers they are today if they had been stingy on investment.
Small-business mode? However, "R&D funding isn't something that can be digested effectively or produce immediate results with just a short-term, large-scale infusion," says Liu Yuan-tsun, a physics professor at Sooc how University and president of Science Monthly magazine. Input in quantity doesn't necessarily translate into output in quality.
Nobel Prize winner Yuan T. Lee, who returned to Taiwan as a guest lecturer at National Taiwan University for a semester last year, says that what scientific research in Taiwan needs the most at present is quality upgrading. With a limited budget, the National Science Council funded mostly small-scale research in the past, and scientists and technicians acquired the habit of trying to "dominate your field or strike out as an authority in an area of your own." Without an effective distribution of labor, re search has often overlapped. "We've been stuck in the 'small and medium-sized business' mode, reaching a certain level without being able to go any further," Lin Ho, a scientist and technician himself, says candidly.
As a result, even though the number of Ph.D. sand R&D personnel listed in science and technology indices has increased each year, "actually, all we've managed to do is contract work on parts and components for the U.S., Japan and other countries in the science and technology mainstream. We haven't had any creative scientific research of our own to speak of," Lin Ho says. "In science and technology, a pack of little craftsmen are no match for a big master."
Too many in academia: Lacking vision and drive and confined to a small and medium-sized business mode, the science and technology sector has been unable to upgrade its influence in pure academic research or in society as a whole. Scientists and technicians are concentrated in academic institutions, where the publish or perish syndrome leads to the pursuit of individual interests at the expense of midstream and lower stream research. Except for a few special industries like computers and information, the hollowing out of midstream and lower stream R&D is clear at a glance when you look at the OECD science and technology indicators-- in technology and development strength, where the full score is 100, we're at least 70 points behind the United States and Japan.
Shih Yen-shiang explains the disjunction of Taiwan's upper stream, midstream and lower stream levels by contrasting it with the seamless division of labor in the U.S. petrochemical industry. In America, universities provide information from research papers related to plastics to firms and public or private research agencies at the midstream level, which then provide production technology to the lower stream level. In Taiwan, the upper, middle and lower streams may "seem to be getting along fine on their own" but actually they provide each other with no mutual aid or support. Because of past limitations, "the upper stream has been wrapped up in teaching and research, out of touch with the two levels below; the midstream has had to rely on technology transfer, which means key technologies have remained in the hands of other countries; and the lower stream has been stuck at the level of processing and packaging."
Being grafted on, or putting down roots? "Currently, whatever particular industry you look at, it's all been this 'shallow-dish' kind of development," Shih Yen-shiang says. Strengthening technology doesn't necessarily have to be done all on our own, he explains, and we've relied mainly on technology transfer in the past, but technology transfer is becoming more and and more difficult these days, and if Taiwan wants to bring in new technology in the future, "we'll have to have the ability to absorb it first." Raising the level of our technology is only way to get the bargaining chips we'll need.
Another challenge that will have to be overcome in our climb toward the top ten is the drain overseas of high-level, postdoctoral researchers and their lack of local orientation. Even though Taiwan has a rich fund of talent in the United States, who helped create our recent economic miracle in the semiconductor industry, and even though many high-level personnel have packed their bags in Silicon Valley and returned home, in the long-term picture, "there's a difference between being grafted on and putting down roots," Lin Ho says. In the past, when we had no foundation in basic research at all, we naturally couldn't expect to train up expert personnel on our own, but now that we've established an initial foundation, that is a task that will have to be considered.
Is your research really creative, or are you just trying to keep up with others? Do you have the ability to train the next generation of high-level personnel? In the view of Li Chin-feng, an associate researcher in the Earth Science Institute at Academia Sinica, these are the two key criteria in evaluating scientific and technological strength.
Integrating upper, mid and lower streams: "The world of academia must foster trained personnel and link up with industry through organizations like the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and the Telecommunications Laboratory," Den Chi-fu says, adding that each stage from upper to lower stream can have its areas of expertise. To upgrade industry's involvement in R&D, the National Science Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have already begun working at opening this road in recent years.
Six or seven years ago, the National Science Council began devoting 30percent of its annual research budget to academia to what it calls "goal-oriented research"--vertically integrated research plans that span the upper, middle and lower stream and involve related organizations and agencies in government, academia and industry. The design and manufacture of optical fiber telecommunication components, for instance, brought together National Taiwan University, National Chiao Tung University, the Telecommunications Laboratory, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and eight firms from the private sector.
Hsu Shiang-kueen, director of the Division of Central Processing at the National Science Council, says that after reaching a certain stage in its development, science and technology needs to be systematized and broadened in scale, or else new scientific findings will remain scattered and diffuse without being realized as real scientific and technological strength. In addition, a lack of cooperative group planning has meant that Taiwan has been unable to foster senior leadership personnel capable of handling large-scale research.
"We have to develop in the future toward large-scale, integrated planning," Den Chi-fu says. With large-scale planning, he believes, it will be easier to develop clear, tangible products as well as to foster R&D leadership personnel, which the universities have been unable to produce. That will increase everyone's confidence and really give the public something to show for its investment in science and technology.
Shedding the "major nations" mentality: People from industry as well as from science and technology affirm the value of the integrated program approach, but Shih Yen-shiang points out that more than hand-in-hand integration is needed in strengthening science and technology and R&D: "The upper, middle and lower streams will have to fill the gaps, and each stage will have to pour in a great deal of manpower and resources."
In view of our present situation, we have to avoid the "major nations mentality" in science and technology development and stop thinking that "if advanced countries like Japan and the U.S. have it, then we should have it too," or "if Korea's got it, then we've certainly got to have it." From four, to eight, to 12 and now on to the 64 key science and technology projects--including satellites, aerospace and high-temperature superconductors--identified after the Fourth National Conference on Science and Technology, each item takes resources and manpower. You can't put all your eggs in one basket, but you can't divvy up one egg into several baskets either.
"If we throw ourselves into pursuing these new areas without strengthening relations among the upper, middle and lower streams, I'm afraid science and industry will continue to go their own way and without joining forces," Shih Yen-shiang warns.
Lack of flexibility: If they don't want to be constantly tagging along behind in the science and technology mainstream, countries deficient in manpower or resources can adopt a strategy of concentrating their investment in a few key areas where they may hope to achieve notable success. Australia, for instance, which has a population smaller than Taiwan's, stands among the leaders in medical technology. The National Science Council is pushing research in high-temperature superconductors for a similar reason. It's a new field, developed only five or six years ago, where we aren't that far behind other countries and where there are wide prospects for future applications. Although some scholars are worried they won't fit in with other industries, "high-temperature superconductors don't require a huge investment, and as long as we keep at it, there's a good chance we can hold our own with any other country," Hsu Shiang-kueen says.
As to the plan for developing joint technology in satellites and aerospace, if we tried to go into satellite space exploration, launching a telecommunications satellite or manufacturing rocket engines and aircraft wings all at the same time, it would require vast resources far exceeding the labor, capital and technology we could provide. We don't have the scope and flexibility in science and industry that the United States and Japan have to take on so many large-scale projects.
There are special areas that we could go after in the aerospace industry, of course, like receivers and transmitters for telecommunication satellites, but many countries are engaged in satellite commercialization and possess reliable technology. "There'll be a tough battle to fight there," a technical expert points out, urging that the question be given more thorough evaluation and consideration before we decide to take part.
The head of the high-temperature superconductor research team, Wu Mao-kun, feels strongly that people in Taiwan at all levels share a consensus in wanting to move toward high technology, that funding in equipment and instruments is generous, and that scientific and technical personnel have adequate moral support, but senses neglect in oversight and evaluation. In addition, "research work is affected too much by administrative operations."
Research nowadays is no longer the lonely, one man pursuit it once was; each stage is linked, from theory to experiment. "That's why there needs to be more flexibility in personnel, accounting and other administrative areas," says Wu, who returned to Taiwan two years ago, echoing a common sentiment among his fellow workers in science and technology. "If you want to upgrade research ability, you have to do more than just pour in money. You have to give researchers flexibility and an environment of non-interference."
The roots of a big tree: To place its scientific development on a firm footing in the world, Taiwan has to putting down roots in applied science first as a strategic choice. But Li Tai-feng warns that "a country that has become industrially and commercially developed only recently is liable to overemphasize practical applications and neglect basic research."
In looking for applications, it's easy to run up against bottlenecks and dead ends, and when that happens, we have to turn back to basic research for a solution. "While we're waiting for the big tree to spread out its leaves and branches, we mustn't forget that the roots lie in basic research," says Den Chi-fu, who is full of hope and expectations for the future.
National strength in science and technology is just that vital and interlinked.
[Picture Caption]
How many problems will have to be overcome as we march along the road to becoming a power in science and technology? (photo by Pu Hua-chih)
To help us catch up with advanced industrial nations, the National Science Council invited the renowned expert Wu Mao-kun (seated) back to Taiwan from the United States to engage in research in superconducting material.
Aerospace is a key industry in developing the country's science and technology and will absorb huge expenditures for R&D. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)
Many projects in the Six-Year National Development Plan depend on foreign technology because of inadequacies in technology at home.
The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, a center for the R.O.C.'s high-tech industries, earns the country high profits, and the Industrial Development Bureau is already planning a second one.
The Synchrotron Radiation Research Center is a national-level research facility that will help upgrade the quality of domestic research.
A notebook computer produced in Taiwan. Developing new products and new techniques is the prime way of advancing technological strength.
Improving the quality of life has become an important goal of science and technology, and investment in R&D for medicine and environmental protection is increasing accordingly. The picture at left shows emissions from a paper mill (photo by Vincent Chang); the one at right shows Chinese medicine entering the computer age.
While waiting for applied science to bring us a better life, we mustn't overlook basic research. The picture was taken at the 19th Assembly of the Academia Sinica.
To help us catch up with advanced industrial nations, the National Science Council invited the renowned expert Wu Mao-kun （seated） back to Taiwan from the United States to engage in research in superconducting material.
Aerospace is a key industry in developing the country's science and technology and will absorb huge expenditures for R&D. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）
Many projects in the Six-Year National Development Plan depend on foreign technology because of inadequacies in technology at home.
The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, a center for the R.O.C.'s high-tech industries, earns the country high profits, and the Industrial Development Bureau is already planning a second one.
The Synchrotron Radiation Research Center is a national-level research facility that will help upgrade the quality of domestic research.
A notebook computer produced in Taiwan. Developing new products and new techniques is the prime way of advancing technological strength.
Improving the quality of life has become an important goal of science and technology, and investment in R&D for medicine and environmental protection is increasing accordingly. The picture at left shows emissions from a paper mill （photo by Vincent Chang）; the one at right shows Chinese medicine entering the computer age.
While waiting for applied science to bring us a better life, we mustn't overlook basic research. The picture was taken at the 19th Assembly of the Academia Sinica.
