science.Taipei

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Institutes & Facilities

Four institutions shape the science on this site: a national academy, a university, a weather and earthquake agency and the body that sets science policy.

Academia Sinica

Taiwan’s national academic institution, founded in 1928, with 24 institutes and 9 research centres on its campus in Nankang. Its three divisions cover mathematics and physical sciences, life sciences, and humanities and social sciences; the Earth sciences and astronomy institutes belong to the first. See Taiwan’s national academy.

National Taiwan University

NTU traces its history to Taihoku Imperial University, established under Japanese rule in 1928. After the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China, the university was reorganised and given its present name; the official takeover dates from 15 November 1945. For the 2025–2026 academic year it reports 17 colleges, 3 professional schools and 61 departments. Its main campus is on Roosevelt Road, and Academia Sinica’s astronomy institute has its building there.

Central Weather Administration

The agency responsible for meteorological and seismological operations in Taiwan, under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. It has nine divisions and centres, including divisions for observation, numerical forecasting, marine meteorology and climate, and remote sensing, plus weather and radar stations around the country.

Two of its units are at the heart of this site: the Weather Forecast Center, which issues typhoon warnings, and the Seismological Center, which reports earthquakes and issues tsunami warnings. They are described on Reading a typhoon warning and Watching the ground move. The CWA also receives group visits by prior application; see Conferences & Events.

National Science and Technology Council

The NSTC was formed in 2022 by transforming the Ministry of Science and Technology and incorporating the Executive Yuan’s Board of Science and Technology. It describes itself as the Executive Yuan’s decision-making body for science and technology, with four missions: formulating science and technology policy, supporting basic research, establishing science parks, and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.

How they work together

The institutions overlap in practice. Academia Sinica’s Institute of Earth Sciences runs geophysical networks alongside those of the CWA and works with the Tatun volcano observatory. Its astronomy institute has its home on the NTU campus, and its seismologists have used instruments in Taipei 101 to study how a very tall building responds to typhoons and distant earthquakes. Seen together, they form a chain from measurement to warning to engineering, which is the thread of this site.

Sources

  1. Academia Sinica, About
  2. National Taiwan University, History
  3. Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Introduction to ASIAA
  4. Central Weather Administration, Missions
  5. Central Weather Administration, Visit CWA
  6. National Science and Technology Council, NSTC announces its first minister (2022)
  7. Academia Sinica Institute of Earth Sciences, About
  8. Academia Sinica Institute of Earth Sciences, Tatun Volcano and Volcanic Hazard Mitigation Workshop (2019)
  9. Chen K.-C., Wang J.-H., Huang B.-S., Liu C.-C., Huang W.-G., Vibrations of the TAIPEI 101 skyscraper caused by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, Japan, Earth, Planets and Space 64, 1277–1286 (2012)

Sources checked on: 3 November 2026