NPIC Innovation & Incubation Center -- in partnership with local enterprises for value creation

1. Mission & goals

    The goals of NPIC Incubation Center are to construct an environment conducive for the cultivation of entrepreneurship and innovation, to help overcome the common predicament of insufficient R&D funding and other difficulties faced by local small businesses, and to give traditional industries a boost for transformation and upgrading to modernized, competitive industries. Backed up by the abundant resources of NPIC faculty and facilities, the Center aims to create an innovative incubation environment to cultivate and nurture small businesses. With the Center as a platform, the results may create a rippling effect in other industries and ultimately generate much value-added knowledge for the nation as a whole. In other words, the Center is set up to help innovate local small businesses with a view to timely promoting their competitive advantage within and without and commercially realizing the optimal fruition of the Institute’s R&D endeavors.

2. Tasks & services

(1) Research & development: professional technical consultation & service; individual technical assistance; seminar and training programs; industry-academic partnering in product development; assisting clients to apply for government grants and subsidies for special R&D projects

(2) Business operation & management: operation & management consultation service; individual management advising; offering second-specialty education courses; advising on leveraged financing and financial planning; acting as a human resource intermediary between industries and talents

(3) Marketing & promotion: providing updated business information; hosting presentations featuring new products and R&D results; media contact & promotion campaigns; assisting companies to attend national and international exhibits and contests; promoting PR & networking by means of organizing associations and strategic alliances.

3. Resources for the incubation of companies

(1) Spacious space: about 500 square meters in the Business Hall on campus are devoted as space for incubation and labs to accommodate more than 10 companies.

(2) Quality academic resources: NPIC faculties in four academic clusters are handy to offer specialized technologies and consultation service, in addition to guidance and assistance from outside professionals and experts that meet the needs of the partnering companies.

(3) Advanced and complete facilities: Conference rooms, exhibit rooms, and common labs are freely accessible. Other equipment and lab facilities under the possession of various departments may be used for R&D purpose for a minimum maintenance fee.

(4) Experienced & skilled staff: professional staff with experience and skill in project management are at the service of the partnering companies, ready to offer through a flexible operation mechanism a multitude of quality services, including comprehensive data banks.

1. Fruitful incubation & partnerships

By the end of 2002, the Innovation & Incubation Center has successfully assisted 20 small businesses in need of what the Institute has to offer, mostly related to information management, e-business, industrial upgrading, and R&D for new technology. As for the Center itself, a real-time stock price citing system has been developed. The new system, which employs CTI integrated technology, is convenient to use because the Chinese phonetic system and the household telephone line are used to access the most current stock information. Additionally, the Center has developed a powerful information management system that incorporates a WED interface. For the companies stationed on campus, the benefits include simplified management process, reduced communications costs, and increased networking security. Additionally, some new innovative software has been developed such as NAT and a dynamic IP station to solve the problem of insufficient IP.