A first-of-its-kind alliance between UC-Berkeley and Taiwan's leading research organization will mean $500,000 a year to support nanotechnology research at the university and help in identifying markets for products that may emerge from the partnership.

The five-year, cross-Pacific collaboration involves the Chemistry and Engineering Departments at UC-Berkeley and the Industrial Technology Research Institute, a Taiwanese government-funded technology incubator regarded as the island nation's leading technology research group.

Johnsee Lee, the institute's president, visited the East Bay campus this week to cement the effort, which will initially focus on research into nano-energy technologies and their applications, especially in the fast-growing markets of the Asia-Pacific region. The strength of Berkeley's research programs and its proximity to, and connections with, cutting-edge Silicon Valley technology companies were among the draws for institute officials, Lee said.

While 15 graduate and postdoctoral students a year will be able to divide the $500,000 gift between them to fund their research, a half-dozen researchers who work at the institute will spend a year at the Berkeley campus working with students, according to Arun Majumdar, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the ITRI/UC Berkeley Research Center. While Berkeley has research alliances with private companies, this is the first such agreement with an international research group, Majumdar said.

In most cases, he said, faculty members will submit proposals for "fellowships" of various sizes that will be weighed by a committee, Majumdar said. Students will then be chosen to work on certain projects, with most of their expenses covered by the ITRI "gifts." That includes tuition for nonresident graduate and postdoctoral students.

"I visited (ITRI) a year and a half ago to give some lectures and we've been talking about doing this ever since," said Majumdar, who was a Berkeley graduate student when a high-ranking institute official, Hsin-Sen Chu, was a visiting scholar at the university. "ITRI is the ideal research partner for us, given its track record in helping create companies in Taiwan, while they regard Berkeley as a premier institution for science and engineering research."

The two institutions "share the same vision," said Majumdar, adding the program could get under way as early as this summer.

"We hope a great deal of intellectual property is created and there are many opportunities for commercialization" of the research, he said...

Read the full story by David Goll in the East Bay Business Times