Through industry–academia collaboration projects, AIM-HI has successfully applied the technologies developed from research and development to actual manufacturing. AIM-HI actively cooperates with other research institutes and enterprises to help the enterprises improve their manufacturing techniques and enhance their manufacturing efficacy. Maintaining a close tie with the industry has always been an effective means for becoming an excellent research institute. RWTH Aachen University in Germany is a good example. It attained its achievement in fundamental industrial technologies by collaborating closely with the industry.

        AIM-HI has long been collaborating with local industries. Project-based funds have allowed us to systematically expand the depth and width of such collaborative relationships, jointly developing advanced manufacturing technologies. Export revenue of the machine tool industry in Taiwan has been ranked the fourth world-widely. Therefore, problems arising from domestic enterprises and client demands have become the key assets of AIM-HI. World-class research questions will no doubt be formulated in response to these practical demands, and the results obtained subsequently will further enhance the international profile of AIM-HI. In addition, the income derived from intellectual property rights is expected to sustain stable financial resources for AIM-HI to achieve self-sufficiency. Concrete directions for the industry–academia collaboration projects of AIM-HI are detailed as follows.

1. Industry–Academia Collaboration Projects

Achieving industry application is the core mission of AIM-HI. In other words, cutting-edge research results must be transformed into feasible and applicable new technologies. AIM-HI adheres to this goal and creates a set of standardized procedures to enable this transformation. A priority list of industry–academia collaboration projects is compiled on a yearly basis. Executing industry–academia collaboration projects not only enhances the technical capability of AIM-HI’s partners, but also cultivates highly competitive research staff, thereby contributing to both academia and the industry. In addition, participating in industry–academia collaboration projects has enabled AIM-HI to achieve greater understanding of the changes and development trends in the industry and market.

2. Technology Transfer

AIM-HI not only publishes reports on its development of advanced technologies in academic journals, but also files patent applications. These technologies that become patented are immediately transferred to the institute’s industrial partners, who can consequently adopt new technologies before their competitors and eventually obtain considerable commercial profits.

3. Industry–Academia–Research Institute Alliance

Research institutes and relevant enterprises will be invited to join the industry–academia–research Institute alliance that AIM-HI has established. Through this alliance, AIM-HI can benefit from the process of sharing research results with more people and exchanging ideas with research institutes and enterprises that have similar goals. In addition, members of this alliance can send engineers to AIM-HI to learn cutting-edge manufacturing techniques, and AIM-HI can send students to participate in internships at ally enterprises to accumulate real experience depending on research or teaching needs.

4. Co-organizing Conferences or On-the-Job Training Programs

AIM-HI will promote its research findings to the industry in the forms of domestic and international academic conferences, keynote speeches, and workshops (co-organized intermittently with research partners). AIM-HI also provides on-the-job training programs to top engineers in partner enterprises, explaining the most updated manufacturing techniques to them systematically as well as providing basic training.