La French Tech Taiwan Newsletter #3
Taiwan France Innovation Exchange: From Values to Action
In our previous newsletter edition, we expand the conversation to other key drivers of the future economy, from cultural and creative industries to clean energy and climate innovation.
As innovation cooperation between Taiwan and France continues to deepen, understanding regulatory environments, ecosystem dynamics, and cross-border collaboration models becomes increasingly important for entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
In this edition, La French Tech Taiwan highlights perspectives on France’s labour environment for founders, insights from a high-level AI and biotech dialogue, and international collaboration initiatives connecting Taiwan with the Grenoble deeptech ecosystem.
Featured Insight: Understanding France’s Labour Environment for Founders
Understanding France’s Labour Environment: Insights for International Founders
France is widely recognised for its strong labour protection system and commitment to responsible business practices. For international entrepreneurs entering the French market, navigating employment regulations is both a strategic challenge and an opportunity to build sustainable organisations.
Building Trust and Fear: A Founder’s Reflection on Labour Rights in France
In this context, Emilia Chen recently published an article, sharing her personal reflections as a Taiwanese entrepreneur preparing to establish a company in France. Drawing on her background in human resources and labour law, she explores how strong employee protections shape both opportunities and concerns for early-stage founders.
Her article raises a central question: How can entrepreneurs build trust, accountability, and sustainable teams within one of the world’s most rigorous labour systems?
From Policy to Practice: Connecting Values with Innovation
Beyond institutional frameworks and labour protection policies, France also actively promotes responsible innovation through international exchange and ecosystem collaboration.
Core values such as transparency, sustainability, and long-term development are reflected not only in regulations, but also in concrete initiatives that connect entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry partners across borders.
In this spirit, La French Tech Taiwan continues to engage with leading innovation hubs in France, including Grenoble, to foster meaningful cooperation between the two ecosystems.
As part of this ongoing focus on human rights, equality, and responsible leadership, La French Tech Taiwan will also be supporting upcoming initiatives around International Women’s Rights Day, including the “Women: Building Resilience, Leading Change” event in March.
Ecosystem Spotlight: France–Taiwan Executive Dialogue on AI & Biotech
Strategic Cooperation at the Intersection of AI and Life Sciences
On January 22, 2026, senior leaders from the French and Taiwanese innovation ecosystems gathered at Taipei 101 for the France–Taiwan Executive Dialogue on AI & Biotech Innovation, a high-level event co-organized by Business France Taiwan and InFocus Therapeutics.
The dialogue brought together executives from biotech, pharmaceuticals, investment, and deep tech to discuss how artificial intelligence is transforming drug discovery and how France-Taiwan cooperation can accelerate innovation across the life sciences value chain.
Speakers highlighted the complementary strengths of both ecosystems:
- France: strong public research and deeptech innovation
- Taiwan: advanced semiconductor infrastructure and scaling capabilities
- Shared opportunity: AI-driven biomedical innovation
A key conclusion of the discussion was that AI acts as a powerful accelerator rather than a replacement for scientific expertise, particularly in early-stage research and drug candidate identification.
Spotlight on InFocus Therapeutics
As co-organizer of the dialogue, InFocus Therapeutics represents a new generation of AI-driven biotech companies operating across France and Taiwan.
To further explore this cross-border innovation model, La French Tech Taiwan conducted an exclusive interview with Emily Fang, Founder and CEO of InFocus Therapeutics, discussing her career path, AI-driven drug discovery, and the realities of building a biotech company in Europe.
The full interview provides insights into:
- AI as a human-in-the-loop research tool
- Cross-border biotech entrepreneurship
- Managing innovation between Europe and Asia
- Translating research into commercial impact
International Collaboration: Grenoble Innovation Bootcamp & Tech&Fest
From February 3 to 5, 2026, 13 international start-up teams from Turkey, Japan, Taiwan, the United States, Spain, and Portugal gathered in Grenoble, France, to participate in an immersive International Innovation Bootcamp, held for the first time in conjunction with the High Level Forum (HLF).
The HLF is an invitation-only international summit bringing together senior executives, policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders from global innovation ecosystems to exchange strategies and strengthen cross-border collaboration.
Over three intensive days, participants explored the core strengths of the Grenoble Alpes ecosystem in technology development, industrial integration, and innovation applications through expert talks, mentoring sessions, pitching events, and ecosystem visits.
Tech&Fest: At the Heart of European Innovation
One of the highlights of the program was participation in Tech&Fest, a flagship innovation festival in Europe. Initiated by the founding team of VivaTech, Tech&Fest is the only event connecting industry, research, education, and entrepreneurship. The 2026 edition brought together more than 22,000 participants, over 500 start-ups, 200 speakers, and 150 exhibitors, as well as international delegations from Europe and Asia, including Taiwan.
With “Sovereignty” as its central theme, the event focused on strengthening Europe’s autonomy in economic, energy, industrial, and digital sectors while promoting practical and implementable innovation solutions. Through Tech&Fest, participating teams engaged directly with decision-makers, research institutions, and corporate partners, gaining first-hand insights into the dynamics of Europe’s deeptech ecosystem.
Partner Highlights: Bridging Taiwan and France
Among the many contributors to this exchange, we would like to highlight the long-term commitment of two key ecosystem partners:
Founder of UBIK | Board Member, La French Tech Taiwan | Member, La French Tech Alps
Having lived in Taiwan for over 22 years, Pascal brings strong engineering expertise and extensive industry experience in supporting European and Asian companies with market entry, strategic sourcing, and soft-landing strategies. With deep cross-cultural understanding and solid technical knowledge in ICT, biomedtech, aerospace, and cybersecurity, he serves as a key bridge for Taiwanese start-ups entering and scaling in the European market.
He is actively involved in major public and industry programs, including France 2030, Bpifrance (DIAG PTI), and the French Chamber in Taiwan Semiconductor Committee. Through his long-term engagement across policy, industry, and innovation networks, Pascal continues to strengthen sustainable and trust-based collaboration between Taiwan and France.
Simon Piquet
Deep Tech & Public Innovation Expert
Specializing in European deeptech and public R&D integration, Simon has been actively facilitating bilateral projects in quantum computing, semiconductors, AI, cybersecurity, green energy, and biotechnology.
He connects French research experts with Taiwan’s ITRI ecosystems and builds long-term, science-based partnerships, particularly at the intersection of quantum and semiconductor technologies.
Complementary Strengths in the Taiwan France Deep Tech Ecosystem
This exchange highlighted the strong complementarity between Taiwan and France in semiconductors and deeptech:
– Taiwan: World-class manufacturing capabilities and system integration expertise
– France / Europe: Strong research foundations and advanced technological leadership
– Shared Opportunities: Quantum technologies, cybersecurity, biomedical innovation, and semiconductor applications
Through this program, both sides deepened mutual understanding and created a solid foundation for future cooperation opportunities.
Grenoble × La French Tech Alpes: A Key European Deep Tech Hub
The Grenoble Alpes region is home to more than 600 start-ups and innovative companies, with over 100 specializing in deeptech. As a key platform, La French Tech Alpes continues to connect these high-potential teams and foster close collaboration between research, industry, and markets.
With world-class research institutions, comprehensive start-up support systems, strong industrial foundations, and stable public-private innovation funding, Grenoble has become an important gateway for international start-ups entering the European market.
Personal Reflections from the Bootcamp, by Emilia Chen
This Bootcamp was highly intensive and clearly demonstrated the maturity and openness of the Grenoble ecosystem.
Research institutions, accelerators, investors, and corporate partners showed strong capabilities for meaningful dialogue and practical collaboration. The showcased start-ups ranged from mature ventures to frontier technologies, highlighting the vitality of the deeptech cluster.
Most importantly, the local innovation environment has evolved into a highly collaborative network built on long-term trust and co-creation, offering valuable inspiration to Taiwan’s innovation community.
Looking Ahead: Upcoming Initiatives
La French Tech Taiwan will continue to strengthen its collaboration with Grenoble, La French Tech Alpes, and French partners, supporting more French start-ups and technology companies in exploring the Taiwanese market and connecting with local industries, R&D resources, and strategic partners.
Through ongoing exchanges and dialogue, we aim to foster mutual trust and complementarity between the Taiwan and France innovation ecosystems and unlock more high-potential collaboration opportunities.
📩 Stay connected with La French Tech Taiwan as we continue to promote Taiwan-France innovation exchange and link global innovation networks.
La French Tech Taiwan will continue to foster dialogue, partnerships, and opportunities for cooperation. We warmly invite you to:
Balancing France’s innovative romance with Taiwan’s pragmatic capital, we are shaping the future together.