Protecting Labor Rights in Taiwan’s Distant-Waters Fishing Industry
A Call for Proposals for Technology-enabled Solutions
Objectives — Themes and priorities
The application of innovative technologies to address the risks of forced labor for foreign and vulnerable crew members and to streamline procedures for marine emergency prevention, notification, and response.
- Real‑time management
- Smart equipment
- Labor-focused solutions and software applications
- Smart digital monitoring systems
- Personal security and labor management
Timetable:
- Deadline for submitting applications: 04/18/2022 (Mon) 5:00pm.
- First phase evaluation: Email notification before 04/25/2022 (Mon)
- Second phase evaluation: An in-person presentation of the proposal to the review committee in early May 2022.
- Winners announcement: Mid-May 2022 on AIT and Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture Facebook or official websites.
- Results presentation: Demonstrate concrete results to major fishing nations such as the United States and Southeast Asian nations in early December 2022.
Eligibility requirements:
- No restrictions on field of expertise, age or personal identity, any teams composed of 1-4 members can participate.
- At least one team member must be a Taiwan national.
- Agree to the terms and conditions of this event (see page 2 for details).
Award description:
- NT$300,000-800,000 R&D grants per team
*Actual award amount will be determined by the review committee based on the content of proposals selected for funding.
*This award will be made in two installments. The first installment of 30% of the total amount is for initial R&D, and the second installment of 70% will be paid after a detailed progress report is received.
- Consulting services provided by Microsoft Taiwan and Institute for Information Industry (III).
- Potential opportunities to win support from relevant agencies, businesses, and other stakeholders for future adoption and other applications.
Selection criteria:
Phase 1 Review
A technical review of written proposal materials will be conducted with at least 5 teams progressing to the final selection.
Phase 2 Review
A proposal review committee will meet to hear in-person presentations from the 5 teams and expect to select the 2-3 top proposals.
- 30% – Feasibility (technical difficulty of application and feasibility of concept under existing technology).
- 30% – Potential for future development (the content of the proposal is helpful to solve existing problems, has a certain prototype and can be imported into service, and has the features such as reduced import cost and easy maintenance and operation).
- 20% – Innovation (the design concept is unique and novel enough to help solve the problem of forced labor, and functions can be added or removed in the future as needed).
- 20% – Completeness (content of the proposal and the brief can fully express the design concept).
Procedure for the submission of proposals:
- Proposal submission to ritahsu@iii.org.tw or judyliu@iii.org.tw before the deadline.
- Proposal format
– Either Chinese or English are acceptable.
– Up to 15 pages is the limit for presentations.
– Please use pdf format.
- Proposal content
– Team roster and team profile.
– Applicants’ contact information, including name, phone number, email address.
– Technical application notes.
– Expected applicable directions.
– Possibilities for further development and functional enhancement.
– Demonstration of developed products/prototypes highly recommended.
For more information, please visit the official websites or the Facebook sections of AIT and the Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture, or call (02) 2396-9268 ; (02) 6631-8510
Organizer: American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)
Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture
Partner: Microsoft Taiwan
Organization for Migrant Fishers’ Rights
Implementer: Institute for Information Industry (III)
Legal commitments:
- The intellectual property rights of the participating proposals belong to the participating teams.
- The participating team guarantees that the information provided for this event, including but not limited to competition proposals, pictures, presentations, audio and video and other materials, does not infringe on the intellectual property rights or other rights of others or violate any laws and regulations.
- The shortlisted teams agree that the organizers or co-organizers are entitled to use the pictures, texts, presentations, photos, videos and other materials (including but not limited to the names, portraits, etc. of the team members, but excluding the program, software, system) in an unrestricted area, time, number of times, and non-profit way (including but not limited to printing, display, publicity, report, publication or disclosure), or sub-authorize a third party. It is agreed that the organizers can modify, reproduce or edit, and exercise all the rights enjoyed by the copyright owner under the copyright law in the relevant marketing media without having to notify the participating teams. If there is no slander involving the personality of the work, the participating team and its members agree not to exercise the personality rights of the author against the organizers.
- The participating teams agree to authorize the organizers or co-organizers to take photos, videos, or ask the participating teams to provide relevant photos, videos or animated images for the purpose of recording, publicity, and marketing of this event or related activities, as well as publish the aforementioned photos or videos in any form.
