The 6th Global Views University Social Responsibility Awards were held at the Shangri-La Far Eastern Hotel in Taipei on April 8th (2025). National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) achieved its best result to date, winning three major awards and ranking third overall. It also won the most awards among all technical and vocational colleges in the country. NPUST’s president, Chin-Lung Chang, attended the ceremony represent the school at the conferral. Among the awards that were received, in the “Industry Co-Creation Group”, Professor Mei-Hui Chen from the NPUST Department of Forestry won First Prize for her “Satoyama Deep Economy 2.0 project for under forest economies, ecotourism alliance development, and agricultural & forestry carbon sequestration talent cultivation”. In the “Ecological Coexistence Group”, Assistant Professor Shiao-Yu Hong of the NPUST Institute of Wildlife Conservation won the Model Award with his project for “erecting perches in farmland and the wilderness to conserve endangered barn owls”. Adding to these, in the “Sustainable Course Group”, which was new this year, Assistant Professor Liu Fangyi Liu of the Department of Agribusiness Management won the Performance Award for her “Net Zero Carbon Inventory Cross-Domain Micro-Learning Program”.
At the awards, President Chin-Lung Chang said: “NPUST has never been absent from the USR competition since it began in 2020. This year, our school’s work stood out once again among many outstanding projects, winning three awards, including a First Prize Award, Model Award and Performance Award. These results testify to the fact that NPUST’s long term and deep engagement with educational research, industry-university cooperation, innovative development, and social responsibility practices are being recognized by the outside world. The awards also offer affirmation and encouragement to the teachers and students who are implementing USR projects at our school. It takes time to cultivate role models— and NPUST has been accumulating expertise and honing technology for a hundred years, working to create a “replicable learning model” and share its successful experiences with counties and cities across Taiwan, and even in the international community. We are very grateful for the affirmation of the committee members, and in the future, NPUST will continue to work hard at making contributions to social progress”.
Professor Mei-Hui Chen, who won first prize in the “Industry Co-Creation Group”, has spent many years working with remote tribes and mountain communities in Taiwan, devoting herself to research on community forestry and sustainable development. Her project, which focuses on “under forest economies, ecotourism alliance development, and agricultural & forestry carbon sequestration talent cultivation”, aims to develop economic models that allow for mountain residents to coexist with the forests. In her work, she is creating technology and developing systems for beekeeping and shiitake mushroom cultivation and is equipping young people with professional capabilities to measure carbon sinks in agricultural and forested lands. At the same time, Professor Chen has connected international and Taiwanese ecotourism resources to give birth to the “Taiwan Ecotourism and Local Revitalization Alliance”, linking 65 local community tribes, 44 ecotourism organizations, and 10 professional counseling teams. Together they are promoting the sustainable development of ecotourism DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations) and building a bridge for the international community to gain access to the profound beauty of Taiwan’s natural mountain and coastal areas.
In the “Ecological Coexistence Group”, Assistant Professor Shiao-Yu Hong of the NPUST Institute of Wildlife Conservation won the Model Award with his endangered bird conservation project. His project, which builds on the work of Professor Yuan-Hsun Sun of the same institute, is focused on the conservation of endangered wild birds in Taiwan, such as the eastern grass owl. Perches are erected in farmlands to attract birds of prey to come hunt for mice in the fields. As an ecologically friendly alternative to poison, the method is enjoying support from community farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture, and various governments agencies. In recent years they have organized corporate ESG collaborations to promote raptor friendly agriculture products, including several with Farglory Life Insurance, PX Mart, and Taiwan Sugar Corporation.
In the “Sustainable Course Group”, which was a new addition this year, Assistant Professor Fangyi Liu of the Department of Agribusiness Management won the Performance Award for her “Net Zero Carbon Inventory Cross-Domain Micro-Learning Program”. Her course was designed to cultivate professional talent in carbon inventory and carbon management with attention given to academic and industrial needs. The theoretical and practical teaching approach used in the course has already helped students obtain a total of 259 professional carbon management and sustainability-related certificates. Professor Liu and her students also formed a carbon inventory seed team to offer guidance to students who were working on the 2023 greenhouse gas inventory report for the NPUST campus and Baoli and Daren Forest Farms. On top of this, they helped another 18 companies to complete carbon inventory projects and reports. Plans are to introduce Assistant Professor Fangyi Liu’s course to National Experimental High School at Pingtung Science Park so that the sustainable curriculum can take root earlier on. Hopes are that once the students have graduated, the will not only apply the knowledge they have learned to the industrial sector, but will also work to enhance the public’s awareness of climate action and social responsibility, and help achieve a state of coexistence between people and nature.
