Starting 1984, Photonics Festival in Taiwan was initially held by National Science Council to increase the competitiveness of Taiwan's photonics industry. In 1994, PIDA (Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association) became the main organizer of the annual event, which comprises exhibitions and conferences of OPTO Taiwan, LED Lighting Taiwan, Solar Taiwan, OptoComm Taiwan, Cross-Strait Photonics Show, Advanced Research Zone and Display Taiwan. Photonics Festival in Taiwan has already become one of the most important photonics exhibitions in the world, making it a perfect communication platform for domestic and overseas photonics companies, academic, research and government institutes. Additionally, the Advanced Research Zone started in 2009 tries to link the industry and academia, creating industry-academia collaboration opportunities. In 2012, the exhibition scale of the Advanced Research Zone grew 70% to more than 40 booths and had attracted 30,413 visitors. One of the features in Photonics Festival in Taiwan 2012 lies in advanced technology, making it the platform for industry-academia collaboration and demonstrating the research performance. Advanced Research Zone successfully attract domestic famous universities to exhibit, such as NTU, NTHU, NCTU, NCKU, as well as other 30 universities. During the exhibition, demonstrating the current achievements and technologies to transfer, facilitating international cooperation and business developments. To help link the industry and academia, PIDA held seminars on Industry-Academia Collaboration for Advanced Research Zone exhibitors as a free service during the exhibition. In 2012, the scale of the seminars expanded to 14 sessions, with contents including solar cell, wind power system, LED manufacture procedure, application of 3D, and other technologies that could be transferred to industry. Photonics Festival in Taiwan as well as Display Taiwan will be held on June 18-20, 2013 in TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall. To expand the scale of Advanced Research Zone and promote the exhibition, the organizer changed its name to Taiwan Academic Research Expo. The four major themes of Taiwan Academic Research Expo are "Digital Content," "Biotech& Medicare," "Green Energy," and "Intelligent Life." Besides, more events will be held to create great opportunities for technology transfer and to stimulate the interaction between domestic and international academia.