Message from Executive Director

During the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the development of innovative medical devices to take care of patients and to prevent the spread of germs are of significant importance. A proper identification of research and product development requires close collaboration between researchers, manufacturers, users, and agencies that supervise relevant regulations and standards, thus accelerating the transition from prototype to production and allowing for prompt delivery to the users as planned. Curently, MTEC’s recent works are developed in response to COVID-19 on research management that focus on practicality.

Meanwhile, the Thai government had declared the BCG (Bio-Circular-Green) economy model to be part of the National Agenda in January 2021. MTEC thus responded to this policy by revising the R&D management plan to develop prototypes and design products and their manufacturing processes in conformity with the circular economy concepts that focuses on 3 principles, namely (1) Reduction in resource consumption and Promotion of recycled material usage (2) Preservation of material value, and (3) Retrieval of the unusable an unused portion. Materials technology plays an important role in driving the circular economy from the very beginning by designing and developing products to reduce the use of resources, as well as promoting recycling, such as Design for Disassembly (DfD), materials development and selection that are compatible with the management system, and selection of the chemical that are not harmful to the recycling system and environment.

The world is changing rapidly and disruptions occur more frequently than ever. MTEC, therefore, has planned to cope with these changes through systematic management and data analysis by focusing on strengthening materials science and engineering design as the basis for further development and synergy with other disciplines to enhance the country’s competitiveness, achieve sustainable production, and bring about a good quality of life. MTEC realizes that the collaboration between all stakeholders is the most critical factor in achieving operational excellence, overcoming obstacles and ensuring accomplishment. MTEC also places high importance on planning and developing research agenda with stakeholders in all aspects, especially the critical product features that truly respond to the needs of the users, thus increasing the prospect of the actual use of the output of research works.