(SeaPRwire) –   TAIPEI, May 12, 2026 — The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan announced today (May 12) the nation’s achievements at the 2026 Edison Awards, another historic milestone for the country on a global stage often called “the Oscars of Innovation.” This year, Taiwan secured a total of 16 awards, joining winners such as Dell, Medtronic, and Dow.

Research institutions affiliated with the MOEA won three gold, six silver, and three bronze awards. Among the recipients were the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC), and the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI). The awarded technologies have been commercialized through partnerships with companies like Mizuno and Sangtech Lab, supporting industry transformation.

ITRI earned three gold and two silver awards. Its LigamiX™, developed jointly with TTRI, received a gold award for overcoming key limitations of traditional artificial ligaments—such as poor biocompatibility, inflammation, rejection risks, and material degradation leading to breakage. By combining polymer-bioceramic composite fibers with a porous bionic textile structure, the technology delivers up to three times the strength of existing products while promoting bone regeneration and tissue integration. Through collaboration with textile manufacturers, ITRI transformed a textile material originally valued at less than US$1 into an artificial ligament priced at US$2,500 per unit.

Another gold award winner, the Prognosis Monitoring System (PMS), addresses the high costs associated with sudden production line failures, which result in product loss and unplanned downtime. Utilizing AI to continuously monitor equipment conditions and predict anomalies before failure occurs, PMS significantly reduces unexpected shutdowns. In one instance during semiconductor manufacturing, the system prevented losses estimated at US$5 million. The technology has since expanded into industries including machine tools, energy, and petrochemicals.

Also receiving a gold award is the Sustainable Pavement Material Recycling technology, which introduces a pioneering asphalt–aggregate separation process to resolve the persistent disposal challenges of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Employing a proprietary biological agent and a water-based heating method, the technology converts 100% of RAP into reusable paving material, generating approximately US$50 in value per ton of recycled content. At full scale, this innovation could enable Taiwan to reduce quarrying by about 4.85 million tons annually and cut carbon emissions by 270,000 tons per year.

MIRDC won two silver and two bronze awards. Its ThermoMind™ Smart Energy-efficiency Combustion System, recognized with a silver award, improves upon the inefficiencies of conventional furnaces, which have long suffered from significant heat loss and reliance on manual adjustments. Designed for energy-intensive industrial furnace applications, ThermoMind™ provides real-time combustion control and waste heat recovery, helping industries reduce carbon emissions by over 110,000 metric tons to date.

Also earning a silver award is MagicABC, which tackles the shortage of Mandarin-speaking speech-language pathologists and the limitations of one-way training systems. Leveraging an AI-powered Speech-Language Pathology Agent (SLP-Agent) and interactive lesson plans, MagicABC supports children with language delays in practicing verbal expression. The system has already been adopted by more than 10 medical and educational institutions, including Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital and Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital.

TTRI claimed two silver and one bronze award. Its silver award-winning A Slice of Running Shoe disrupts conventional footwear manufacturing by using precision melt-blown automation to compress the standard eight-step assembly process into just two. This advancement enables a shoe upper to be completed in just six minutes. Additionally, its mono-material construction ensures the product is both ultra-lightweight and fully recyclable, advancing goals of the circular economy.

Securing another silver award is the CellNet™ Leukocyte Reduction Filter, co-developed with Sangtech Lab, which enhances transfusion safety by removing white blood cells from blood products. The manufacturing process replaces traditional solvents and heavy water usage with supercritical CO₂ fluid technology, enabling cleaner, lower-carbon production of medical devices under completely solvent-free and waterless conditions.

SOURCE Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA)