The ECCT today signed an MOU with National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) as part of the Taiwan Global Research & Industry Alliance (GLORIA) Centred on nine Universities. The MOU, the chamber's fourth MOU with a university in Taiwan, aims to expand cooperation to more fields of research and a greater talent pool together with the eight other universities in the alliance: Hung Kuang University, National Changhua University of Education, National Chiayi University, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, National Taipei University of Technology, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Tung Hai University, and Taipei Medical University. NCHU has also joined the ECCT and the ECCT's Low Carbon Initiative (LCI), the third university to do so.

Following the MOU signing there was a matchmaking session for smart agriculture, smart manufacturing and smart healthcare, the main themes covered by GLORIA and the focus of various R&D fields of the universities in the alliance. Research results were shown to the ECCT members of TGC to promote exchanges between multiple renowned academic institutions and the international market, in the hope of opening up a broader and more diversified way of cooperation.

At the event ECCT Vice Chairman Giuseppe Izzo delivered opening remarks where he said: "In the knowledge economy, constant innovation is an essential ingredient and driving force and remaining innovative and competitive depends on ongoing investment in talent and R&D. Taiwan has some excellent universities and research institutes and dynamic enterprises. But sometimes the link between research and commercial application is missing or weak, especially for foreign enterprises doing business in Taiwan. Forging stronger industry-academia collaboration is precisely what GLORIA aims to do. By aligning the innovation and R&D energies of Taiwan's universities and enterprises with the global industry supply chain, and through cooperation with domestic and foreign enterprises, we can help turn innovative ideas into viable business applications".