A delegation from the Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) met today Friday in Pamplona / Iruña with the Minister of Industry and the Ecological and Digital Business Transition, Mikel Irujo, and representatives of the department to learn about public transition policies ecological and development of renewable energies in Navarra. Likewise, the delegation has held meetings with officials from the Public University of Navarra (UPNA), the National Center for Renewable Energy (CENER) and the BeePlanet company.
In addition to Councilor Irujo, Uxue Itoiz, general director of Energy, Business R&D&I and Entrepreneurship, participated in the meeting with the Asian country’s delegation; Iñigo Arruti, general director of Business Development; Miren Ausín, director of the International Projection Service; and Eduardo Aznar, director of Strategy and Business Development at CENER. Irene Izarra, from the consulting firm Herrera&Zhang, specialized in China, also attended.
On behalf of the Taiwanese delegation, Yung Fu Huang, deputy director of the Electrical Grid and Power Electronics Technology Division of the GEL, attended; Erika Ho, member of ISTI’s European Business Division; and Sean Lin, head of Business Development and Technological Cooperation with Europe at ISTI.
The objective of the Taiwanese entity is to seek an exchange of opinions and suggestions in relation to Taiwan’s decarbonization objectives, through knowledge of the policies and obstacles that Navarra has encountered in its thirty years of strategy to increase the proportion of renewable energies. and reduce carbon emissions. They have also been able to address the area of operations and maintenance of offshore wind farms, the island’s main commitment to the generation of renewable energy. On behalf of CENER, they have shared the work that the center has been developing on the island for some years with public and private entities.
After the meeting, a visit was made to the BeePlanet facilities, linked to the exchange of knowledge and search for potential cooperation.
Finally, the members of the Taiwanese delegation held a meeting with Joseba de la Torre and Mar Rubio, professors of History and Economic Institutions at the UPNA, who conveyed to the Taiwanese delegation the history of the development of renewable energies in Navarra.
Navarre-Taiwan Relationship
The relations between the Government of Navarre and Taiwan began in 2020, with conversations that sought to improve mutual knowledge of Navarrese and Taiwanese technological capabilities, initiate the positioning of the Navarrese technological ecosystem in Taiwan and create a space for permanent conversation and collaboration between ITRI and the Government of Navarra -and by extension the institutions and companies of Taiwan and Navarra-.
In March 2022, under the title ‘The spring of renewables. Energy transition, decarbonization strategy and renewable energies’, the 1st Navarra-Taiwan Cooperation Forum was held, in which representatives of the Government of Navarra, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, as well as officials from the Taiwanese executive and the ITRI. The event was perceived as a success on the Taiwanese side, and served to raise Navarra’s reputation as a potential partner in technological cooperation between Spain and Taiwan and favoring subsequent institutional and business contacts.
That same year 2022, within the same sector, the Taiwanese entity TAITRA invited Uxue Itoiz to participate in Western Europe 2022, where European specialists share about trends in the biotechnology industry, the sustainable green industry and the net zero carbon emissions economy. .
In 2021, in the field of health, ITRI was looking for companies that could carry out a study at the European level. At the proposal of the Government of Navarra, ITRI entered into negotiations with the Navarrese company Zabala Innovation, which obtained the contract and an agreement was reached.
In 2023, within the framework of the international health sector fair MEDICA, high-level meetings were held between representatives of the International Plan of the Government of Navarra and the ITRI, as well as between Taiwanese and Navarrese companies present at the fair.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute
Founded in 1973, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), in addition to its technological development work, accumulates some 30,000 patents, and has incubated some of the most important Taiwanese multinationals such as TSMC, UMC, AZUS, etc. Its current priorities are in the development of artificial intelligence (including the autonomous vehicle), health, bio and environment.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is Taiwan’s leading industrial technology research and development institution and has played a pioneering role in promoting strategic industries on the island such as the semiconductors. Within this organization, there is the International Strategy Center for Industry, Science and Technology (ISTI), which is responsible for promoting cooperation with national and foreign partners, both business, academic and governmental, as well as the Research Laboratory on Green Energy and Environment (GEL), one of the central places of the institute.
Furthermore, ITRI constitutes an important hub between public policies and industrial development through applied research but also by promoting cooperation between Taiwanese companies abroad. Initially, the main reference countries for technological cooperation were the United States and Japan, later Europe – mainly Germany, France and the United Kingdom – although more recently, for very different reasons, other countries such as Spain or the Eastern countries have joined.
ITRI’s roadmap for the coming years focuses on four main application areas “smart living”, “quality health”, “environmental sustainability” and “resilient society”. In the articulation of this Strategy and Technological Roadmap 2035, climate change and the challenges of the 2050 net zero emissions objectives make the GEL occupy one of the central places of the institute in the coming years.
 meets with Councilor Irujo and several Navarrese entities){kind=link}