In recent years, with the popularity of youth entrepreneurship, many competitions on innovation and entrepreneurship have been organized to encourage more young people to pursue their business dreams. This year, student teams guided by the Startup Land at National Chung Cheng University (CCU) collectively performed even better than before, as they were not only recognized in the competitions hosted by two local governments, but also honored by the central government in a national event. Nine CCU teams have received project grants totaling about NT$4.3 million from the "U-START Plan for Innovation and Entrepreneurship" supervised by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the "Chiayi County Startup Fund for Young Entrepreneurs", the "Chiayi County City Startup Fund for Young Entrepreneurs", and other competitions outside CCU. Besides, the total number of teams that have been mentored by CCU Startup Land and then got selected as the grant winners by the U-START Plan, CCU was tied for second place with the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST), setting a very good result in the U-START competition. 

Not long ago, the winners in the first phase selection of the MOE U-START Plan have just been announced. Dr. Shin-Yuan Hung, Director of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center of CCU, said that in terms of the total number of school teams selected through the first stage, both the university ranked first and one other university ranked second are universities of science and technology that aim at vocational training. So, as a traditional university that mainly focuses on academic research, it was indeed a commendable achievement that CCU could be tied second with NKUST. This time, there were six teams guided by CCU Startup Land on the winning list of the U-START Plan for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Of these, one was selected for a program targeting indigenous student teams called "U-START Startup Project for Indigenous Development" under the U-START Plan. The six teams received a total grants of NT$3 million, including "Attractor Company", "EMGS (Earthworm&microbes global sustainable) LTD. (蚓密菇俠)", "OneFactorial (一階科技)", "Fantast", "EDITH INTERNATIONAL TRADING CO., LTD (艾多科技)", and the indigenous group "Stay George Ltd. (久聚)". Each team was awarded with NT$500,000 as the startup grant.

The entrepreneurial themes of the selected teams explored across the AI smart manufacturing, the innovative App melding travel and billing system, the catering business fusing indigenous culture with music performance space, as well as the agricultural materials, the IoT beekeeping, and the biological dressing innovative products that incorporated ESG (Environment Social Governance) values and technologies. Dr. Shin-Yuan Hung said that all the student teams have business potential, and they all have shown key interests to local issues, fully demonstrating their creativity in their entrepreneurial endeavors. 
 
In programs held by both the Chaiyi County City Government, many teams participated in the competitions this year. CCU Startup Land encourages students to evolve entrepreneurial ideas around local issues, enabling them to make significant strides and get recognition for their efforts. Three teams, Singularity Create (奇點創造), Chivien's (食凡) and yu_dessert (餘製菓子) secured startup grants amounting NT$700,000 from the Chiayi City Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Startup Program (嘉義市青年創業獎勵補助計畫); two teams, OneFactorial (一階科技) and Chivien’s (食凡), received startup grants totaling NT$500,000 from the Chiayi County Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Startup Program (嘉義縣青年創新創業獎勵補助計畫). 

CCU Startup Land announced its future plan that it will provide intensive guidance to these teams to vie for the distinguished grants of up to NT$1 million per team in the second phase of the U-START Plan. The Startup Land at CCU has 8 independent and spacious discussion rooms. On top of providing comfortable space for the students to work together, it will also regularly arrange professional mentors from different industries, organizing regular seminars and workshops, delivering useful instructions on competitions and entrepreneurship and helping to shape these student teams. Furthermore, CCU Startup Land is dedicated to providing continual financial support to these teams to certain extent, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship within CCU, it aims to inspire students to cultivate their own business. 
 

In programs held by both the Chaiyi County City Government, many teams participated in the competitions this year. CCU Startup Land encourages students to evolve entrepreneurial ideas around local issues, enabling them to make significant strides and get recognition for their efforts. Three teams, Singularity Create (奇點創造), Chivien's (食凡) and yu_dessert (餘製菓子) secured startup grants amounting NT$700,000 from the Chiayi City Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Startup Program (嘉義市青年創業獎勵補助計畫); two teams, OneFactorial (一階科技) and Chivien’s (食凡), received startup grants totaling NT$500,000 from the Chiayi County Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Startup Program (嘉義縣青年創新創業獎勵補助計畫).

CCU Startup Land announced its future plan that it will provide intensive guidance to these teams to vie for the distinguished grants of up to NT$1 million per team in the second phase of the U-START Plan. The Startup Land at CCU has 8 independent and spacious discussion rooms. On top of providing comfortable space for the students to work together, it will also regularly arrange professional mentors from different industries, organizing regular seminars and workshops, delivering useful instructions on competitions and entrepreneurship and helping to shape these student teams. Furthermore, CCU Startup Land is dedicated to providing continual financial support to these teams to certain extent, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship within CCU, it aims to inspire students to cultivate their own business.