The National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) serves as a national research and development platform to support academic research, to advance frontier science and technology (S&T), and to nurture human resources in S&T. Looking back in 2010, the NARL has made significant strides in many areas. Among others, the NARL initiated integrating competitive advantages of its 11 research centers and preparatory office for interdisciplinary synergy, established the inducible transgenic rat model for biomedical research, devised innovative new toroidal metamaterials, and developed 9nm functional resistive random access memory array cells with reduced power consumption. These achievements lay the foundation that will underpin Taiwan’s further development and competitiveness in the international community.

To move on what has achieved in marking the centennial of the Republic of China (ROC), the NARL intensifies several vibrant projects for the year of 2011. It plans to materialize the establishment of Taiwan Typhoon and Flood Research Institute, Biomedical Technology and Product Research Center and the consortium of 16-8 nanometer devices, and to press forward the complete self-reliant system design of Taiwan’s optical Earth observation satellite FORMOSAT-5.

During the year, the NARL’s Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) is completing Taiwan's largest research vessel, christened Ocean Research V (OR-V), which is slated to be launched in June at Hsingda Harbor, Kaohsiung. The 2,700-ton OR-V, significantly larger than the 300-ton and 890-ton vessels now in service, is designed and fuished with onboard equipment to carry out the long-term monitoring of the ocean around Taiwan throughout the year, and to support marine energy research and ocean exploration. The two mechanical arms attached to OR-V’s unmanned remotely operated vehicle will be able to sample the 5000 to 6000-meter deep seafloor. And to facilitate the operation and management of OR-V, the NARL-TORI is completing the construction of its headquarters near Hsingda Harbor, and establishing various coastal marine stations. All of these efforts will bolster the nation’s marine research and development, international collaboration in marine sciences, and public awareness of the nation's wealth of coastal and ocean resources.

Also for the year, the NARL’s National Center for High-performance Computing is to commence a new supercomputer in July. This new supercomputer will have the computing power of 170 teraflops, which is eight times more of the nation's 20 teraflops mainframes now in service. And this new supercomputer is expected to land in the list of the world's top 100 supercomputers; about 30% of them are used for financial computing. Taiwan’s prevailing supercomputer is primarily employed in scientific research such as physics and chemistry. The addition of this avant-garde supercomputer is bound to relieve domestic computing demand, and create momentum for the country's engineering and scientific research.