Taiwan is a leader in mass production and OEM and a key player in the global industry chain. Taiwan's manufacturing industry currently faces many challenges stemming from globalization and market volatility, an increasing number of countries opting for domestic manufacturing, and China's low-priced competition. A new drive for transformation is needed to rebuild Taiwan's industrial competitiveness. In this context, Taiwan can draw on its strengths in electronics and semiconductors and rapidly incorporate industrial technologies into smart integration, smart sensing and control, and robotics through cross-discipline R&D integration and talent cultivation. These efforts would not only drive smart and decisive manufacturing and production but also pave the way for new opportunities for improvement.

National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) is a leading research university in Central Taiwan, renowned for cultivating talent in smart machinery and manufacturing. Metal Industries Research and Development Centre (MIRDC) has served as an advisory institute for the mental and its related manufacturing industries in Taiwan for many years. It is one of the few domestic R&D institutes capable of providing system integration solutions and services. To promote industrial transformation and maximize the benefits of industry-academia-research cooperation, NCHU and MIRDC held a signing ceremony at the NCHU International Conference Hall on November 16, 2020, to cement the establishment of the "Smart Manufacturing and Metal Technology Strategic Alliance" and their commitment prospectively researching smart machinery, manufacturing techniques, and metal technologies. The parties jointly form a research team and invest funds for researching prospective issues. Resources are also consolidated to create an R&D platform for formulating localized smart manufacturing strategies, cultivate cross-discipline talent, and support "MIT".

Several expert scholars were invited to the signing ceremony to provide their professional insight into the "development and trends of smart manufacturing", "metal technologies and smart manufacturing", and "development and trends of metal processing and machine tool industries" and promote professional exchange.