Awards Update

ICUK programme has been in operation for about a year now. Following the regular calls to Proof-of-Concept Fund and Partnership Grant since the official Launch of the ICUK programme, we are pleased to announce that up to November, over 37 Partnership Grant projects and 15 Proof-of-Concept projects have been awarded ICUK funding totalling over £1.5m.

 For more details of awarded projects, please click the link to visit the ICUK website.

Project Highlights

Partnership Grant projects progress to Proof-of-Concept project

After the initial feasibility studies and staff exchanges, a good proportion of 37 ICUK Partnership Grant projects have either successfully progressed to the Proof-of-Concept stage or come to the stage of applying for the Proof-of-Concept Fund.

Case 1: through the Partnership Grant support to the project "Feasibility study of novel dew point air conditioning for the UK and China buildings", Dr Xudong Zhao of The University of Nottingham and Prof. Li of Tsinghua University have successfully completed the design of the dew point air conditioning for both the UK and China buildings. A joint patent application has been filed. Dr Zhao presented his ICUK PG outcomes in the 1st China Jiangsu International Technology Transfer conference, and attracted a high level of interest from over 20 local attendees. This project has moved to the stage of applying for Proof-of-Concept Fund.

Events Flashback

To build a UK-China wide knowledge network and further facilitate the collaboration in innovation and knowledge transfer, ICUK, in collaboration with ICUK partners have organised 6 key events in the year of 2008.

ICUK Projects Promotion Meeting, Suzhou China
Sino-UK Technology Promotion Meeting was held on 20th March by Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MoST) and the Suzhou Science &Technology Bureau. Approximately 130 people attended of which 70 were from local businesses. At the invitation of MoST, 13 of ICUK Proof-of-Concept projects were presented at the meeting which attracted strong local industrial interest. 3 preliminary agreements with industrial partners have been generated from the meeting and the award of over 200k RMB has been also confirmed from the Office of Science & Technology, Suzhou to support the Proof-of-Concept activities in China.

China-UK Forum in Biomedical Innovation, Guangzhou, China
China-UK Forum in Biomedical Innovation was held in Southern Medical University on Monday 17th March 2008. Leading academics from partner HEIs of both China and the UK joined the forum along with experts in early stage technology transfer from both sides. The two-day forum has been followed by visits to Shenzhen High-Tech and Suzhou Industrial Park, two of China’s flagship Hi-Tech Industrial Parks. This workshop presented the delegates with further collaboration opportunities. An award of over 300K RMB by the the Department of Science and Technology, Guangdong has been confirmed, following the event, to support one ICUK Proof-of-Concept project.

Building A UK-China Partnership In GNSS and Geospatial Sciences, Wuhan, China
The ICUK workshop on “Building a UK-China Partnership in GNSS and Geospatial Sciences” was held in Wuhan University, China between 22nd and 23rd October 2008 where ICUK and the University of Nottingham brought together a broad range of top experts including senior government officials, key academics of leading universities/research institutions and industry representatives from leading Chinese surveying and mapping companies. This workshop has been confirmed as a great success with many potential collaborations being initiated not only between academics themselves but also with industries and between governments of both countries.

Commercialization of Photonics Technologies from Universities, Shanghai, China
The ICUK workshop on “Commercialisation of Photonics Technologies from Universities” took place at the Asia Optical Fibre and Optoelectronic Exposition and Conference (AOE 2008) in Shanghai on Saturday November 4th. An audience of over 60 people including invited guests from 20 of China’s top academic and research institutions in the field of photonics, gathered for the event. This workshop provided a very good platform for academics and industry representatives to share their best practice in commercialisation of Photonics technologies from Universities. In addition to hosting the workshop, ICUK and the ORC organised a highly successful stand for the three days of the trade show.

The 1st China Jiangsu Conference for International Technology Transfer &Commercialisation (CITTC)
At the invitation of MoST to contribute to the 1st China Jiangsu Conference for International Technology Transfer & Commercialisation and also to showcase ICUK projects to business and industry representatives from China, ICUK organised a selection of 10 projects to present in this high profile conference hosted by Jiangsu Provincial government. ICUK was represented at 5 out of 7 parallel sessions. Key academics of ICUK partner HE institutions from both the UK and China attended the conference and presented their projects along with ICUK project managers, all of which have been well received. The audience showed strong interest in the ICUK programme and additional people did arrive specifically to hear ICUK introduction and sessions. Some of ICUK projects also attracted very strong interest from industry.

ICUK IP Workshop in Nanjing
To further facilitate the UK-China knowledge transfer collaboration, ICUK organized a small-scale Intellectual Property (IP) workshop in Nanjing on 5th November for ICUK project managers and academics. The IP workshop invited IP specialists from both the UK and China to look at some key issues in Intellectual Property & technology collaboration in China, IP protection in international science and technology collaboration. Following the presentations on key IP issues, a surgery session and case studies were provided by IP specialists to give the audience concrete examples of experiences in dealing with contracts and infringement in technology transfer cases in bilateral collaboration

Please click here to see the reports of past events on ICUK website.

Upcoming Events

Sino-EU GP-TCM Workshop, Beijing, China, 11-13 January, 2009

Sino-Eu GP-TCM Workshop will be held between 11th and 13th January 2009 in Beijing China. This event will be led by King's College London, one of ICUK partner UK HEIs. This event aims to encourage sino-EU scientist collaboration on technology transfer, sharing of information and resources about TCM and to enable more experienced and proactive China partners to join the GP-TCM programme as well as to ensure that Chinese and European scientists work together to further improve the safety and efficacy of TCM.

Funding Update

Partnership Grant: Round 8 Call for Proposals

Proposals are now invited for the Round 8 call to the ICUK Partnership Grant. The deadline is 11th December. For more details of the Partnership Grant, such as funding criteria and how to apply, please click Funding.

Important Dates: Future Calls to Proof-of-Concept Fund

There will be another two rounds of calls for proposals to Proof-of-Concept Fund in 2009:

Further information about application deadlines etc will be published on ICUK website when nearer the time. Please visit ICUK website for more information.