DSET was established by the Taiwanese government in 2023 as a national think tank dedicated to providing policy recommendations on geopolitics and emerging technologies. Our research focuses on critical areas such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, energy security, climate resilience, and defense technologies.
We have established different task forces that include:
The Economic Security Research Program focuses on Taiwan’s economic security challenges amid technological geopolitics, aiming to drive institutional reform and strengthen cooperation with allies. The program’s research covers: (1) how export controls, investment screening, tariffs, and subsidies in Taiwan and allied countries shape the global semiconductor supply chain; and (2) how China uses subsidies to disrupt the industry, builds “shadow supply chains” to evade export controls, and exploits various channels to steal Taiwan’s semiconductor technologies.
The Democratic Governance Program studies how emerging technologies—particularly AI—intersect with democracy and security. Its research centers on three areas: sovereign AI strategies, AI safety governance, and the global risks from China’s rapid AI expansion. The program examines how Taiwan can develop AI aligned with democratic values and its data environment, while analyzing international frameworks for safe and accountable AI. It also investigates AI-driven disinformation and evaluates civil society responses and public–private collaboration gaps. Through this, the program provides policy recommendations to bolster truth resilience and protect democratic processes.
The Energy Security and Climate Resilience Research Program (Energy Resilience Group) focuses on Taiwan’s energy security, climate risks, and strategic resilience. Our research examines Taiwan’s energy resilience in the face of a potential Taiwan Strait crisis or extreme weather events, its strategic role and multilateral cooperation in global net-zero technology supply chains, the water and electricity demands of the semiconductor industry and emerging AI infrastructure, and China’s climate diplomacy and strategic energy development.
The National Security Research Program studies Taiwan’s adoption of emerging defense technologies and its cooperation with international partners to build self-reliant defense supply chains. The team’s research focuses on: (1) defense applications and supply chains for uncrewed systems—including aerial, maritime, underwater, and robotic platforms; (2) wartime communications resilience, such as submarine cable protection and satellite communications; (3) cybersecurity of critical infrastructure; and (4) developing tabletop wargames to test Taiwan’s wartime use of these technologies.
The main task of the Data Team is to support various research projects. With Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) methods as the primary approach, the team leverages programming and data engineering to transform data into analytical and visual content. The team’s expertise includes programming languages used for data science, database construction and maintenance, data visualization, statistics, and AI-assisted analytical applications.
