-Advanced Medical Research-

As a university-affiliated medical institution, the Hospital shoulders the triple mission of research, teaching, and medical services. It has long integrated the resources of the Medical College, external academic and research units, and internal interdisciplinary specialized teams. By combining clinical cases with multi-field research energy across basic medicine, public health, pharmacy, biotechnology, and information technology, the Hospital constructs a complementary system between clinical practice and academic research. Through cross-disciplinary research, clinical data integration, and achievement translation, it practices the translational medicine goal of "identifying problems from clinical practice, seeking solutions through research, and returning to clinical practice to improve care," feeding back research achievements into clinical services, teaching training, and quality improvement to continuously promote the advancement of medical technology and service upgrades.

• Clinical and Translational Medical Research

Academic and Clinical Resource Complementarity

NCKU Hospital combines the academic resources of the NCKU College of Medicine and cross-disciplinary university resources to establish a bi-directional complementary development model between "academic research" and "clinical practice." Through the cooperation of physicians, faculty, researchers, and medical teams, clinical care issues are transformed into research topics, and research achievements are fed back into clinical services, teaching training, and quality improvement, promoting the continuous enhancement of medical services.

At the same time, the Hospital's attending physicians can enter the College of Medicine to pursue master's and doctoral degrees in the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine based on their research development needs, co-supervised by professors from the College of Medicine and clinical mentors; medical students and researchers can also utilize the Hospital's clinical settings and data resources to perform data collection, case analysis, and field verification. Through this bi-directional complementary mechanism, the clinical research and academic innovation energy in southern Taiwan are strengthened.

In addition, the Hospital has established the “Incentive Guidelines for Research Paper Publication”, encouraging colleagues to dedicate themselves to academic research and the publication of international papers. In 2025, there were a total of 276 application cases for journal papers, among which 24 papers were published in international journals for the first time; there were also 127 application cases for the publication of academic conference papers. In response to the recent emphasis on Mega Journals and journal quality review, the substantive review mechanism for journals has also been strengthened. In 2025, after excluding part-time personnel and jointly appointed personnel from the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), the Hospital published a total of 100 papers with an Impact Factor (IF) greater than 5 (IF > 5) as the first author, corresponding author, or first and corresponding author, demonstrating high-quality research output achievements.

• 2025 Annual Execution Results of Strategic Objectives

R1-3 Growth in the Number of Outstanding Papers (IF ≥ 5 or Subject Area Ranking ≥ 5%)
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
The number of papers published as the first author, corresponding author, or first and corresponding author throughout the year reached 450. The number of outstanding papers (with an Impact Factor≧5 or a journal ranking within the top 5% of the academic field) reached 100.	The number of papers published by the Hospital as the first author, corresponding author, or first and corresponding author throughout the year totaled 542. The number of outstanding papers with an Impact Factor ≧5 was 100.	〇

Supporting In-Hospital Research

To integrate research-related software and hardware resources and enhance the quality and efficiency of clinical research, the Hospital has established a Clinical Medical Research Center and set up 14 core laboratories. It has employed 16 technicians and administrative staff and allocated an annual budget of NT$5 million for the maintenance of high-value instruments and NT$8 million for laboratory consumables to ensure the normal operation of core/shared laboratories.

In addition, a research consultation platform has been established, where senior professors from National Cheng Kung University, research-based attending physicians of the Hospital, and PhD-level researchers provide consulting services on paper writing and project planning. This platform supports hospital colleagues in research design, manuscript writing, and journal submission. Furthermore, training courses on academic writing and project proposal development are held to strengthen the Hospital’s research capabilities.

 

The Clinical Medicine Research Center distributes a quarterly e-newsletter to introduce the Hospital’s core facilities and research resources. It has also established an “Online Digital Learning Platform” and regularly holds equipment training courses to actively expand its user base, aiming to improve the utilization rate of equipment and increase research paper output. In 2025, a total of 40 equipment training and certification sessions were held. The number of in-hospital physicians and medical personnel using the core facilities reached 5,578.

R1-1 In-Hospital Project Budget Execution Rate
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
Within six months after the announcement of the approved list, the disbursement percentage of the approved project budget (actual expenditure / approved budget) must reach 50% or above, and a midterm progress report must be submitted. Annual budget execution rate reaches 90%	Six months after the announcement of the approved list, the project budget execution rate was 58.83%, and the submission achievement rate for midterm progress reports was 99.4%. The annual project budget execution rate was 97.56%	〇
R1-2 Growth Rate of Core Laboratory Facility Usage
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
The number of facility usages by the Hospital's physicians and medical personnel reached 5,000 person-times.	The number of core facility usages by the Hospital's physicians and medical personnel throughout the year totaled 5,578 person-times.	〇

 

Interdisciplinary Integrated Projects

In 2025, the Hospital subsidized a total of 329 in-hospital research projects. In addition to the traditional “individual research” model, and in order to “encourage senior researchers to mentor young researchers in actively engaging in clinical and translational medical research and to stimulate the Hospital’s research culture,” a budget of NT$122 million was allocated to support the “Forward-Looking Integrated,” and “Non-Integrated” projects. These initiatives aim to nurture outstanding in-house teams and position integrated projects as pilot studies for future large-scale external grants. This also prepares for cross-hospital and crossuniversity integrated teams and encourages the Hospital’s physicians and medical personnel to identify problems from clinical practice and seek collaborative research solutions with faculty members from National Cheng Kung University’s basic medical sciences and other interdisciplinary teams, thereby cultivating national integrated project teams.

To develop internationally distinctive medical specialties and to secure high-level external research collaborations (such as those from the National Science and Technology Council and the National Health Research Institutes), the Hospital allocated NT$50 million for hospital-designated special research projects（Top-Down）. These projects aim to integrate research and clinical care, identify outstanding and impactful clinical studies, and pioneer new therapeutic fields. Meanwhile, the Hospital continues to appoint project review committee members and invites relevant experts to form an integrated project review panel responsible for supervising and evaluating the progress and future development potential of various projects. According to statistics, the Hospital had a total of 16 interdisciplinary collaborative in-hospital projects and co-published 96 research papers with international partners in 2025.

R1-6 Promotion of Interdisciplinary and International Research Collaborations
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
A minimum of 5 interdisciplinary collaboration projects across the Hospital A minimum of 5 international collaboration projects across the Hospital	Regarding interdisciplinary cooperation in hospital-funded projects: A total of 16 interdisciplinary research cooperation projects were approved throughout the year. In terms of international collaborations: Hospital personnel (including adjunct medical researchers) co-published 96 research papers with international research teams (including 67 as first or corresponding author and 29 as coauthors).	〇

 

Establishing an Intercollegiate Biotechnology Research Network

The Hospital actively integrates the academic research capacity of various colleges at National Cheng Kung University to conduct collaborative research across colleges and departments, promoting the mutual integration of clinical needs, basic research, and technological applications to stimulate innovative research achievements. The Clinical Medicine Research Center also assists research teams in participating in external competitions, handling patent applications, and promoting the translation of achievements. In 2025, a total of 7 patents were obtained, and 3 teams won the 22nd National Innovation Award, 1 team won the 2025 National Innovation Refinement Award, and 4 teams won the Future Tech Award.

To continuously enhance the internal innovative research momentum of the Hospital, the Clinical Medicine Research Center periodically organizes innovative research activities to promote the formation of interdisciplinary teams and develop toward industry-academia cooperation and patent layout. In 2025, a total of 16 internal research projects were approved, including 8 smart healthcare research projects, 5 precision health projects, and 3 cell therapy projects.

Meanwhile, the Hospital also actively cooperates with external units to integrate cross-institutional resources, elevating the level and impact of clinical medical research. In 2025, a total of 255 external projects were secured, and 10 innovative academic research activities and 1 seminar were held to continuously strengthen research exchange, innovative applications, and medical quality improvement.

Number of Approved External Projects
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
Establish at least 6 integrated teams Hold at least 5 academic activities on innovative research Obtain at least 200 external projects	The Hospital has a total of 9 integrated team Held 10 academic research activities Obtained 255 external projects	O
Number of External Research Awards or Patents
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
At least 7 research awards and patents	The Hospital's research teams won 4 Future Tech Awards, 3 National Innovation Awards, 1 National Innovation Refinement Award, and were granted 7 patents, totaling 15 research awards and patents.	O
Advancement of Innovative and Cutting-edge Medical Research Capacity
Annual Goals	Implementation Status	Target Achievement
Hold at least 6 courses and medium-to-large seminars throughout the year At least 5 research projects in cutting-edge medicine, precision health, and smart healthcare.	Held 7 courses in regenerative/precision medicine, healthcare, big data, or smart healthcare. The number of internal projects related to smart healthcare research projects reached 8, precision health-related projects reached 5, and cell therapy-related projects reached 3, totaling 16 projects.	O