Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) was established by National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs) in 2008 with the goal of combining the research and development forces from government, research community, academics, and industries. TORI not only is an important platform to cultivate talents for ocean research in Taiwan, but also deepens Taiwan's strengths in the ocean science and technology so that Taiwan could be proactively involved in international collaborations around the world. On November 28th last year, President Ching-Hua Lo of NARLabs led a delegation to visit Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) to initiate the opportunity of collaboration between these two organizations. Continuing this effort, Executive Director Dr. Hitoshi Hotta of JAMSTEC led a delegation to visit NARLabs from April 9th to 11th, 2014. Both parties sponsored the joint NARLabs-JAMSTEC workshop at National Sun-Yet-San University (NSYSU) in Kaohsiung. The main themes of the workshop were global climatic change, undersea engineering techniques, and oceanic geological disaster. Technical trends and bilateral collaboration were discussed in-depth at the workshop. More than fifty attendees shared the knowledge on the newly developed and innovative technologies.

Group photo: Deputy Minister Chung-Liang Chien of MOST (front second from left), President Ching-Hua Lo of NARLabs (front first from left), JAMSTEC Executive Director Dr. Hitoshi Hotta (front third from left).

Taiwan and Japan, located on the west side of the North Pacific, are surrounded by ocean with rich natural resources and diverse marine ecosystems. However, due to climate and environmental changes along with global warming in the recent years, frequencies of natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes are drastically increased in Taiwan and Japan. JAMSTEC is the largest ocean research organization in Asia. The visit by JAMSTEC to NARLabs had a significant meaning. JAMSTEC also showed interests in “Moored Ocean Observing Network” and “Submarine Geo-hazard Observing Network” research projects in TORI. NARLabs and JAMSTEC had reached the agreement on research topics, scholar exchanges, and signing of memorandum of understanding (MOU). This was helpful for NARLabs to continuously pursue in the advanced research and the cultivation of high-tech talents.

At his opening remark at the workshop, Senior Vice President Tung-Yang Chen of NARLabs expressed that the vision of NARLabs was to commit resources to establish a national ocean research center, with the goal of supporting the needs and requirements of national ocean-science researches. In addition, TORI built and ran the operation of research vessel Ocean Researcher-Ⅴ(OR-Ⅴ). This 2700-ton research vessel had unfolded ocean exploration capacity and it was able to maneuver remotely- operated vehicles (ROV) in deep water. Other core facility included ocean current measuring system by shore-based high frequency radar around Taiwan, ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS), deep-ocean climate data buoys, and marine database. It indicated the importance of ocean technology to NARLabs. This bilateral workshop would help understand the future technical development and trend. It also created a platform to share knowledge and technology, and created the opportunity of long-term collaboration between the two organizations.

Twelve sessions were presented by experts from either Taiwan or Japan. Dr. Wu-Cheng Chi of Academia Sinica (AS) of Taiwan began the technical session in the morning. He introduced the Taiwan’s national energy project – Gas Hydrate, which JAMSTEC began extraction in 2013 and marked the start of a new era. He covered the status of the research project and the supporting power of OR-V. Other speakers from Taiwan consisted of Dean Hong-Yung Chen of NSYSU, Director Kuo-Ping Chiang and Prof. Shiaw-Yih Tzang of National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU), President Chau-Jen Chow and Prof. Chan-Chuan Wen of National Kaohsiung Marine University. They covered the ongoing research projects under Asian Pacific Ocean Research Center in NSYSU, Center of Excellence for the Oceans in NTOU, and underwater survey capability of NKMU and Dragon Prince Hydro-Survey Company, respectively. Dr. Ban-Yuan Kuo of AS proposed a prospective collaboration between NARLabs and JAMSTEC on Ryukyu subduction zone dynamics and earthquake potential.

Group photo: Senior Vice President Tung-Yang Chen of NARLabs (front fifth from left), JAMSTEC Executive Director Dr. Hitoshi Hotta (front sixth from left), President Hung-Duen Yang of NSYSU (front sixth from right), President Chau-Jen Chow of NKMU (front fifth from right).

From TORI, Deputy Director Chin-Chang Hung, Dr. Yih Yang, and Prof. Chau-Chang Wang introduced the development and establishment of scientific instrument, research program related to deep sea mooring, and undersea research and technology development in TORI. From JAMSTEC, Executive Director Dr. Hitoshi Hotta presented the research involvement on the change of global environment by JAMSTEC, and the switching of Japanese scientific research organizations to strengthen the value of localization after March 11th earthquake. Besides, Dr. Satoshi Tsukioka, Dr. Katsuyoshi Kawaguchi, and Dr. Masanori Kyo introduced the research program related to deep sea mooring and undersea research and technology development, the research program related to geo-hazard, and the development of long term borehole monitoring system for earthquake and geodetic research in JAMSTEC, respectively.

The afternoon session was open for discussion on mutual visits of research ships from both organizations, collaborative investigation, exchange of scientists and engineers, and future cooperation. A tour to OR-V was also conducted. Both organizations and attendees looked forward to having more concrete collaborative researches and discussions on an international level in the near future.