ArchiveChina-UK Forum in Biomedical Innovation
Dates: 17-21st March 2008
Initiated by Prof. Wen Wang from Queen Mary, University of London, “China-UK Forum in Biomedical Innovation” was held in Southern Medical University on Monday 17th March 2008. This Forum gathered leading academics from Queen Mary, University of London, King’s College and Southampton University from the UK; Southern Medical University, Nanjing University, Tsinghua University, Wuhan Institute of Virology and Hong Kong Polytechnic University from China. Experts in early stage technology transfer from both sides and also UK commercial partners have also joined the workshop to share their expertise in UK-China collaborative research and early-stage technology commercialisation.
The two-day forum at Southern Medical University has been followed by visits to Shenzhen High-Tech and Suzhou Industrial Park, two of China’s flagship Hi-Tech Industrial Parks. These two visits, which included a briefing session of the history and policies of the two High-Tech Parks and visits to potential entrepreneur partners, presented the delegates a good opportunity to get some firsthand information of China’s economic growth and technological development in the past decade and also to have a better understanding of how technology commercialisation is carried out in China.
These two visits proved to be very successful in bridging academic research and industry in the field of Biomaterial and Bioengineering. The chairman of this meeting, Prof. Wen Wang said “The ICUK Forum in Biomedical Innovation provided a platform for scientists from the UK and China to establish collaborative work in innovation and to enhance knowledge transfer and commercialisation of research products.”
China-UK Forum in Biomedical Innovation is the first ICUK event in China and it aims to build a knowledge exchange platform to inspire joint innovation and to explore technology commercialisation opportunities in the field of Biomedical Science. With the valuable contribution from the leading academics, technology transfer experts from both the UK and China, this event was a fruitful success: several new collaboration plans are now in discussion and new applications for ICUK funding are expected to be generated as a result of the event.
‘We see scientists from China and the UK actively exchanging their knowledge and ideas, and university management and local government have also shown great support,’ said Many Cristofoli, the Executive Director of ICUK, ‘I am sure the Forum will generate further in-depth collaboration between the two countries’.
For further information please contact:
Email: info@icukonline.org
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Notes to the editor
Innovation China UK (ICUK) is the first UK-China collaboration programme to promote joint innovation and knowledge transfer.
Connecting five UK higher education institutions and over twenty Chinese partner institutions, ICUK supports academic and business partners in forging collaborations, funding proof-of-concept research, and commercialising joint intellectual property across the UK and China.
ICUK is a joint initiative between the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills, and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
