ArchivePromotion and Match Marking Meeting in Suzhou
Date: 20th March 2008
Sino-UK Promotion and Match Making Meeting was organised on 20th March by Ministry of Science and Technology and the Suzhou S&T Bureau. 13 of ICUK Proof-of-Concept projects were presented at the meeting. Approximately 130 people attended of which 70 were from local businesses.
The meeting opened with a welcome from Mr Zhou Xudong Director Suzhou S&T Bureau who emphasized the region’s openness and willingness to embrace commercialisation of
R&D. Mr Xing Jijun Director of Europe in the MOST Department of International Collaboration then welcomed ICUK by emphasising 30 years S&T collaboration between UK and China which is a good platform for promoting industrialisation and commercialisation. ‘Over the past decade China has increased funding for institutional and university research. In the next phase of Chinese R&D development it would give more attention to enterprises and try to make these the centre of China’s innovation system and MOST was more than willing to help and support this phase’, said Mr. Xing.
Following a presentation on Proof-of-Concept Fund Procedures and Criteria by Dr Malcolm Sims, Chair UK Assessment Panel of ICUK, the meeting received 13 presentations from the Chinese academic partners in the proof-of-concept proposals already received by ICUK. This meeting enabled MoST to introduce proof-of-concept funding and to assess interest and support from the Suzhou regional government and local businesses. Based on the Meeting feedback, MoST will shortly decide on a number of ICUK PoC projects which will be invited to apply for MoST International Collaboration Fund.
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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.
