December 11 marks the exciting launch of the long-awaited 2021 USR Online EXPO. The online exhibition is scheduled to run for two weeks until December 25. With “Interaction, Innovation” as the theme of the exhibition, the USR Online EXPO will include the fruitful results of social responsibility projects and humanistic care literacy carried out by teachers and students from universities across the Republic of China (R.O.C. Taiwan). A total of 204 USR project teams from 93 colleges and universities, as well as corporations with a long-term commitment to practicing social responsibility, have made great accomplishments with their concerted efforts, actively promoting cross-border and cross-domain opinion exchanges and matching creativity from all parties. With such a wide variety of projects integrated into the USR Online EXPO, the design of USR projects are sure to display each team’s dynamism and achievements. 

Inventive Interactive Exploration Game Design Gives a Fresh Look to the USR Online EXPO
This year, the USR Online EXPO has focused on utilizing breakthrough designs for its website by launching 3D image animations, dynamic webpages and interactive games to increase user interaction and engagement. In the interactive game, viewers will be able to choose their own characters and follow each storyline. It is hoped that the engaging details of the game will encourage viewers to further explore the USR EXPO website.

There is a rich variety of content available under several sections in the 2021 USR Online EXPO. “About USR” introduces the idea and the concept of university social responsibility, and a collection of online activities conducted by the Center for University Social Responsibility, Ministry of Education in 2021.“USR Achievements” showcases the timeline and highlights of each of the 204 USR projects. “University Achievements” provides a campus-by-campus look at the innovative changes and achievements both on and off campus promoted by the USR projects in the school affairs system. “Featured Project Videos” presents 12 videos shortlisted by a panel of experts, from a total number of 102 videos, with each video creatively presenting their respective team’s USR project and their social practices. The section “Invited Articles” includes four international USR case studies featured by academic experts and 11 short essays from corporations, NPOs, NGOs, and local youth groups on how USR projects can be linked to community efforts.

Social Resilience under the Pandemic: USR EXPO Presents how Universities have Improvised their Social Practices
Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted lives and businesses around the world. In the R.O.C. (Taiwan), the pandemic started right at the onset of the second phase of the USR project (2020-2022). Although global action was hampered, each USR project team was able to demonstrate their resilience in response to local issues. In honor of their efforts, two special sections have been designed: “Changes and Contributions in Response to the Pandemic” and “Essays on Global Exchange Outcomes in Response to the Pandemic.” Data on the schools’ efforts and contributions to pandemic response, including excellent cases, have been collected. This has provided exchanges and observations among schools, leading to further innovation and transformation. Meanwhile, the public can also see how USR projects can be continually promoted under the pandemic, thereby broadening international social practice.

USR Promotes University Innovation and Seeks Out New Local Possibilities 
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has launched and promoted the USR Project since 2018. Over the past five years, university faculty and students have learned to care for and listen to the voice of local communities, build mutual understanding, and help integrate resources to solve local problems. The relationship between universities and local communities has begun to turn a new page as a result of USR.

Since 2018, the Center for University Social Responsibility, Ministry of Education has held the University Social Responsibility Expo (USR EXPO) annually to raise awareness about USR and to attract more schools, teachers, and students to engage in social practices. A more action-styled slogan "University, Community, Possibility" was designed in reaction to the theme of the 2021 USR Online EXPO, “Interaction, Innovation.” The idea of the theme is to bridge the gap between universities and local communities through interaction. The theme also demonstrates how universities have taken on social responsibilities while fostering mutual understanding with local communities. The Center for University Social Responsibility aims to promote the image of USR through this EXPO in order to lead universities towards social innovation as they work hand-in-hand with local communities for improvement and for a more sustainable social environment.

In response to the theme of this year, the Expo encourages each project to collect the results and reflections of participating procedures in the projects from students, teachers, local fields, communities, professional teachers from the industries, and residents within 30-second videos. In addition, it especially creates two items of feedback on the Expo website, one of which includes the feedback on the opinions gathered in the questionnaires regarding the products or local tour packages developed through various USR projects, and the other, which includes expectations and suggestions for the EXPO next year. For more detailed information: https://www.2021usrexpo.org.