After a rocky start in 1996, the Industrial Technology Research Institute’s Incubator Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan, has bounced back — and how. Leveraging resources such as access to research facilities at ITRI (an R&D organization with close ties to the Taiwanese government and local industry), the incubator has attracted some of the sharpest start-ups in the region. The ITRI Incubator Center now has 18 clients. Among its 79 graduates is Phison Electronics Corp., which in 2001 developed the Pen Drive – the world’s first USB flash removable disk.

The ITRI Incubator Center offers its clients management advice and technical consulting services, as well as access to capital through the Industrial Technology Investment Corp., an in-house venture capital fund that has invested more than US$15 million in about 30 incubator clients.

Taiwan’s first incubator, the ITRI Incubator Center continues to lead the nation’s incubation industry with innovations such as ITRI International, a Silicon Valley, Calif.-based program designed to help North American entrepreneurs market their products and services in the Asia-Pacific region.

NBIA isn’t the first to recognize the incubator’s accomplishments: In August 2005, the program received the Asian Association of Business Incubation’s highest honor, the AABI Award, for excellence in management, services, clients, graduates, outcomes and finances.