The Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI) was established and affiliated with the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL) in 2005. The forerunner of the STPI was the Science and Technology Information Center (STIC), which had been an operational unit within Taiwan’s National Science Council since 1974. Other than the STIC’s original mission of serving as an information resource center for science and technology, the STPI is working to improve how science and technology policies address societal needs. An explicit focus of the STPI is to contribute needed expertise and perspective in the quest for scientific and technical knowledge usable by decision makers at the governmental level.
Based on a large collection of information on broad disciplines of science and technology over the past 35 years, the STPI forges new understanding of and approaches to the governance of science, technology and innovation, and influences academic research, government policy-making, and industrial management. Positioning as the country’s think-tank in science and technology, the STPI addresses a broad range of issues, including priority setting for research, research efficiency and effectiveness, R&D management, technology strategy, technology assessment, science and technology indicators, intellectual property management, human resource development, technology transfer, technology and national development, and innovation and national competitiveness.
More recently, the objectives and operations of the STPI have moved with the changing times, in order to maintain and focus on current and future pressing issues. This has seen the STPI open up the development and application of foresight in Taiwan, with the objective of injecting a stronger future orientation into strategic planning. It has also been deeply involved in developing a better understanding of the changing nature of the global knowledge economy and the means to prosper within it.