Origin

In 2008, National Chengchi University (NCCU) signed a MOU with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and signed an exchange agreement between the two universities in 2013. On the basis of this university-level cooperation, the Department of Ethnology, NCCU also signed a MOU with the Department of Anthropology, UCLA. Since 2015, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, the two departments have worked together for many years in Ifugao, the Philippines on field courses.

In response to Taiwan's New Southbound Policy and the long-term research outputs of Southeast Asian studies, NCCU founded the Center for Southeast Asian Studies(CSEAS) in 2016. In 2017, the Department of Ethnology of NCCU, in collaboration with CSEAS, invited scholars from UCLA, National University of the Philippines, as well as the NGOs of Ifugao, the Philippines, and Taiwanese Indigenous communities, to the workshop held in Taiwan with the topic of “Academic Research and Community Participation”.

The Establishment of CTPILS

Based on past academic exchanges and collaborations, at the end of 2018, NCCU started implementing the project of "Science and Technology Innovation Center for Taiwan-Philippines Indigenous Knowledge, Local Knowledge and Sustainable Studies(CTPILS)" with the support of the National Science and Technology Council (former Ministry of Science and Technology) of Taiwan, and founded the office in Lamut Campus of Ifugao State University(IFSU) in the Philippines in July, 2019.

CTPILS is jointly operated by NCCU, IFSU and the Save Ifugao Rice Terrace Movement Organization(SITMo), and is also supported by international partners such as the Department of Anthropology of UCLA and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of University of Hawai'i at Mānoa(UHM). The establishment of CPTILS also fostered the MOUs signed between NCCU and IFSU as well as NCCU and UHM.

CTPILS intends to conduct cross-national indigenous knowledge and local knowledge comparative research through exchanges and collaborations between multinational organizations, and looks forward to making the center a platform for engaging more international organizations to achieve the goal of sustainable development.