Industrial Technology Research Institute

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (, abbreviated 工研院; ITRI) is a non-profit research institute located in Taiwan under the supervision of the Republic of China Ministry of Economic Affairs. It conducts research and development in applied technologies to advance private sector growth. Founded in 1973, it gave birth to numerous key technologies now employed by the companies at the nearby Hsinchu Science Park and was instrumental in fostering the "Taiwan Miracle" and propelling Taiwan to become one of the "Four Asian Tigers".

History

ITRI was founded under the direction of Minister of Economic Affairs Sun Yun-suan and leadership of its first president Chao Chen Wang. A driving motivation was to transform Taiwan's existing export industries, which were developed in the 1960s and centered on textiles, shoes, plastic toys, and agriculture, to the more sustainable fields of petrochemicals, machine tools, and electronics.

ITRI played a key role in creating the semiconductor and electronics industry in Taiwan. United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), spun off from the ERSO division of ITRI, was launched in 1980 in Hsinchu Science Park. It was Taiwan's first mainstream semiconductor company. UMC was followed by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in 1986, the Taiwan Mask Corporation in 1988, and the Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation in 1994.<ref...
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