Cabinet Minister without Portfolio Chen Chin-de (陳金德) said on Wednesday that the education ministry will help upgrade National Ilan University’s drone master’s program into a better-equipped graduate institute to boost research capacity for unmanned systems.
Chen said that the university’s master’s program in drones and smart agriculture, along with its UAV Application Research Center, has laid a solid foundation for research in recent years, CNA reported. With support from the education ministry and the Industrial Technology Research Institute, these will be upgraded into a new graduate institute and R&D lab.
The move will help align academic research with the rapidly growing needs of unmanned systems, robotics, and AI integration, Chen said.
He pointed out that Yilan offers unique advantages, including being one of the few locations in Taiwan with both air and sea testing sites, according to CNA. On the industrial side, Yilan already has manufacturers of unmanned system modules and components, and can quickly integrate with northern Taiwan’s industrial network to form a complete supply chain, the minister said.
Chen noted that Taiwan has a mature industrial base in semiconductors and artificial intelligence. To further support the unmanned systems industry, the government has allocated funding to subsidize drone procurement and stimulate domestic demand to help Taiwan become a key exporter in a non-China democratic supply chain, he said.
Chen said President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) is heavily promoting drone industry development and positioning Taiwan as an “Asian hub for the democratic drone supply chain.” The cabinet has already launched integrated programs to support the sector across regulatory frameworks, innovation and R&D, and manufacturing, he said.
