In the 1990s, when NCKU saw an increase of commissioned projects and related funds, then-president Jing Wu and Water Resources Agency director Hwung-Hweng Hwung proposed to establish a “General Research Center” to administer the commission of large-scale projects on a self-supporting basis. Without administrative bureaucracy and personnel limitations on the levels of departments and colleges, the Center allowed the University to manifest its capacity for research and spur cooperation and exchanges between the governmental, industrial, and academic sectors.

In 1996, the Office of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed the concept of “knowledge economy” for the first time. Accordingly, NCKU founded its General Research Center in the same year to promote the integration of knowledge and economy. As an interdisciplinary research unit on the first administrative level of NCKU, designated exclusively for industry-academia collaboration, the Center worked to integrate research resources and achievements effectively within the university, apply NCKU-developed technologies to the industry, and enhance the cooperative relationships between the government, the industry, and academia by. Both the industry and national development benefited from its contributions. In 2007, the technological transformation service center and the innovation incubation center were integrated to form the Technology Transfer and Business Incubation Center, a unit providing both technology transformation services and business incubation to campus teams and enterprises.

Amid economic trends, NCKU established the Innovation Headquarters in 2020 to step up its efforts to promote the application of knowledge to economy. In addition to the Aerospace Science and Technology Research Center and the affiliated centers under the General Research Center, NCKU established a new accelerator center, a. center for enterprise relationships and technological transfer, and an international division to promote innovation and internationalization on campus. In 2020, NCKU was distinguished with its technology transfer performance, registering a patented technology transfer rate of 18%, an enterprise funding rate of 26%, and contract signings for a total of TWD 650 million. In the same year, the Times Higher Education ranked NCKU first in the industry funding category and fifth in the category of industry, innovation and infrastructure.

In 2020, NCKU’s industry-academia collaboration saw outstanding achievements in its securing of TWD 602 million in industry-academia research funding and partnerships with 242 companies, among which there were even international partnerships with Qualcomm and Amgen. Partnerships with iconic companies like TSMC, SinoPac, and Yageo founded the Academia-Industry Collaboration Center and engaged in a long-term research collaboration with Delta Electronics. At the same time, the Industry Innovation General Research Center looked outward to strategic alliance and formed the GLORIA 2.0 SOUTH platform and the “South Medical Alliance”. In a trailblazing endeavor for the country and industry-academia innovation, the platform and alliance linked 12 schools and 5 hospitals together. In addition, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Southern Taiwan Science Park, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the Gap & Learning Field alliance (GOLF), Taiwan Patent Attorneys Association, Ernst & Young, Taiwania, and Canadian industry-academia platform Mitacs have come together to promote campus innovation and entrepreneurship, establish the start-up industry ecosystem in the southern region of Taiwan, and foster the connection of Taiwanese start-ups with the global market.