The National Institutes of Applied Research (NIAR) hosted the selection and award ceremony for the first phase of the 2025 From IP to IPO (FITI) project on June 25, during which honorary dean and Acer founder Stan Shih stressed that innovation and entrepreneurship must focus on creating value. In his words, entrepreneurs should transform investments into tangible values that the market recognizes and appreciates.
In his remarks, Shih noted that entrepreneurship is more about creating value than making money, but since profitability is required for long-term sustainability, entrepreneurs should strive to create tangible value from their investments in intangible assets, so that they can generate returns from their target markets. In addition, interests and benefits should be exchangeable and balanced among all its stakeholders, and entrepreneurs should analyze their markets from the perspective of all stakeholders and their interests.
According to the NIAR, eight finalist teams presented their projects at the event, with the Outstanding Startup Award going to iFlow Lab, UniEM Ultrasonic Guidance, and Koujiankang Technology. Each of these teams will receive NT$1 million (approx. US$34,366) in startup funding from TSMC and the Acer Foundation.
Biotechnology was the primary focus of the first batch of finalists in the 2025 FITI project, in addition to teams centering on AI and IoT projects. Since its launch in 2013, the FITI project has helped foster 968 teams and 559 startup companies, while attracting more than NT$12.5 billion (approx. US$430 million) in private investments.
Among the eight finalist teams this year, a group headed by NTU College of Medicine professor Shyh-jye Chen developed an AI-based rapid screening technology to detect oral cancer lesions in a mere two minutes, using patients' own smartphones to help improve early detection rates.
iFlow Lab was founded by Dr. Yu-chen Chen, a urologist at Kaohsiung Medical University's Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, based on her prior experience in the Stanford-Taiwan Biomedical Fellowship Program. The team has developed a highly portable, handheld urine measurement device to allow rapid data collection for urological diagnosis, which helped the team earn a NT$1 million startup fund.
Finally, a team headed by Prof. Shuen-de Wu of the Department of Mechatronic Engineering at National Taiwan Normal University utilized low-power technologies to create an underground IoT system that allows long-term, real-time monitoring of underground pipelines, with a battery life of up to two years. The team received a Startup Potential Award for this innovation.
Article edited by Jack Wu
