National Cheng Kung University

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) has tasked its mission in university social responsibility to cultivate students' professional and interdisciplinary abilities and to enable all students to become socially aware and socially practicing engaged academics. NCKU’s USR program is focused on building a practice-based “Education-Pedagogical Content Knowledge" ( E-PCK) platform on campus and to establish a "borderless university" in the off-campus area through field-based teaching and research, to drive the comprehensive development of Tainan City in various directions with the influence of university knowledge, to establish a model of university-city collaboration and innovation, to expand students' learning areas and opportunities through social practices in the community and to drive the development of local culture and industries with the influence of university knowledge.

Taiwan society is facing the problems of aging and low birth rates and along with rapid urbanization, urban-rural development has also become imbalanced. The USR program at NCKU focuses on these two major social imbalances and emphasizes on five major themes: "sustainable urban-rural community development," "aging society development," "circular economy," "friendly agriculture" and "technological democracy," linking them with community settings and exploring social phenomena and issues related to them. NCKU is committed to leading faculty and students to work with the community to find solutions through teaching, research and social action.

Our partners include the following: "Companionship 2026: A Micro-community Action Network for Ageing," a project to promote micro-communities among seniors and explore models of social interaction for healthy life expectancy and positive autonomous living; "Collaboration in the Badlands: Regional Innovation and Cross-regional Practice in the Low-Elevation Mountains," a project to explore sustainable development issues in low-elevation mountains and to explore the badlands of southwest Taiwan - Zuojhen and Longqi in Tainan; "Farming and Livestock Co-Prosperity and Farming and Ecology Co-Prosperity: Technology and Value Innovation with Technology Democracy at the Core of Action" a project that focuses on friendly agriculture, agricultural waste challenges and developing appropriate technology in the field with democracy in technology; "Introducing Microbial Technology into New Smart Agriculture in Tainan’s Agricultural Districts," a project that seeks to introduce microbial technology as the core technology into new smart agriculture to implement sustainable agriculture and enhance agricultural value chains with value-added processing and transformations; "Listening to the Breath of Tall and Short Trees - Constructing an Environmental Healing Field," a project that links community sites with courses that cultivate practice-based talents; the "New School Lunch Innovation Promotion Project" is concerned with issues such as care in remote areas, food culture and education, food ingredient procurement and logistics, as well as related issues. The "Pingtung Zhutian Senior Care Friendly Park Project" aims to build an open dementia care community model, so that the care mechanism can conform to the principles of "people-oriented" approach as well as respect for local life and culture and to implement the concept of local aging and local care.