The research excellence project on Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (CosPA), as funded by Taiwan Ministry of Education with a grant of about 15 million U.S. dollars over the next four years and abbreviated as the "Taiwan CosPA Project", puts the primary emphasis on the construction of the Array for Microwave Background, a radio array telescope dubbed as "the AMiBA Telescope" (with a budget of about 7 million U.S. dollars earmarked for the hardware) while strengthening (1) the related experimental particle astrophysics studies, (2) the theoretical works on various aspects related to the early universe (especially on phase transitions and non-equilibrium phenomena) and on the large-scale structure formation and evolution, (3) the related optical and infrared astronomy studies, and (4) the build-up of the national astronomical infrastructure. The science goal of the AMiBA Telescope is, in the early phase of the operation, to use the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect to do the high-z large-scale structure surveys and, in its second phase, to attempt to measure the polarizations associated with the cosmic microwave background (CMB). If completed on schedule as designed, the AMiBA will have the competitive edge over most of the other ground-based telescopes worldwide. If successful, the Taiwan CosPA Project, while being viewed domestically as the benchmark academic excellence initiative in the area of natural sciences, will indeed bring a high-quality research-based astronomy to life in Taiwan.

W.-Y. Pauchy Hwang(P.I.)