UK signs innovation and tech deal with Taiwan

The UK government’s annual trade talks with Taiwan have resulted in a collaboration deal on science, innovation and technology. Under the agreement, the two countries will deepen their partnership on digital trade, including semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) standards, space, telecommunications and net zero. Last month, the UK government announced a new integrated national satellite communications system , designed to safeguard national security and defence capabilities, and put the UK’s space sector to work in reindustrialising the country over the coming years, with a budget of £7.8bn until 2030. The UK’s national technology adviser, Dave Smith, said the two countries are “natural partners in emerging technologies – from semiconductors and photonics to space and next-generation communications”. “Our strengths are genuinely complementary: world-leading UK research, design and innovation alongside Taiwan’s unrivalled capability in advanced manufacturing and hardware. This arrangement gives that partnership a lasting framework to deliver tangible outcomes for researchers and businesses on both sides,” he said. The collaboration agreement aims to establish a non-legally binding framework to support cooperation between the recently formed UK Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) and Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council. The collaboration includes the launch of a Taiwan-UK silicon photonics academic alliance. This will be backed by seed funding and aims to promote academic exchanges and cooperation in silicon photonics, with support from the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute. It also includes a semiconductor skills initiative and a project involving satellite communications, with the countries’ space agencies planning joint research and development in advanced satellite communication technologies. Today’s trade talks have helped identify new opportunities in digital trade, clean energy and advanced manufacturing to support our industrial ambitions and drive growth Anas Sarwar, DBIST The agreement was signed during the two countries’ annual trade talks, which have taken place yearly since 1991. This led to the UK and Taiwan signing an Enhanced Trade Partnership arrangement in 2023, aiming to “strengthen bilateral trade and investment relations between Taiwan and the UK”. According to the agreement, this includes collaborating on “areas of joint interest relating to digital trade, including digital technologies that facilitate trade”, and addressing “barriers to digital trade faced by businesses”. UK trade minister Anas Sarwar said the UK and Taiwan share a “strong trading relationship”. “Today’s trade talks have helped identify new opportunities in digital trade, clean energy and advanced manufacturing to support our industrial ambitions and drive growth in every postcode,” he said. In 2020, Taiwan launched a strategy for its six core industries: information and digital technology, cyber security, medical technology and precision health, green and renewable energy, national defence and strategic industries, and strategic stockpile industries. This includes maintaining the “supremacy of Taiwan’s information and communications technology industry”, while also ensuring the country is a global focal point of digital innovation and contributes to world prosperity and security. It also wants to strengthen its cyber security and medical technology industries. Taiwan is the UK’s sixth-largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific region, with bilateral trade worth £8.9bn in 2025. Read more about the UK government and tech collaboration The UK Atomic Energy Authority plans to work with the US Department of Energy to combine supercomputing power for nuclear fusion research. UK and France unveil ‘groundbreaking’ science and technology deal . The IT sectors of the UK and Ukraine have built strong relationships since Russia’s invasion of the latter, and there is more to come, writes the IT Ukraine Association’s ambassador in the UK.