Taipei, April 23 (CNA) An international conference on Taiwan-related research will open on Thursday at Academia Sinica, the nation's top research institution, where scholars across disciplinary lines will share their findings.

The World Congress of Taiwan Studies is aimed at facilitating exchanges among academics doing research on Taiwan, which will lay the groundwork for future collaboration and raise the profile of Taiwan-related studies, said Hsiao Hsin-huang, director of Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology.

Taiwan studies programs have been established throughout Taiwan, said Academia Sinica Vice President Wang Fan-sen, with research fellows at the institute researching topics in the humanities and social sciences, and college professors dedicated to studying various facets of Taiwanese society.

A number of research institutes devoted to Taiwan have also sprung up around the world, including the North American Taiwan Studies Association, the Centre of Taiwan Studies under the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London and the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan, Wang added.

Because of the growing presence of such programs, the institution decided to bring together members of the Taiwan studies community and provide a comprehensive overview of the research findings to give them more depth, Wang said.

About 170 researchers from 11 countries are expected to participate in the conference, which will run through April 28.

(By Lin Szu-yu and Scully Hsiao)
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