A delegation from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) led by Professor Way Kuo, CityU President, visited the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on 13 May where they met Professor Bai Chunli, President of CAS, and other CAS representatives for the further enhancement of academic exchange and research collaboration.

Both institutions discussed strategic collaboration proposals for strengthening teaching and research, which included the further exchange of staff, joint training programme for PhD students and more joint laboratories.

CityU had a long-established partnership in a wide spectrum of areas with CAS, said President Kuo. The main collaborative institutions in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area included the China Spallation Neutron Source and Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, and CityU looked forward to a closer partnership with CAS with greater synergy, he added.

President Bai said that CityU was an important partner. By referring to the experience of collaboration between national laboratories and top universities in the world, CAS would work with CityU to establish an innovative platform of international competitiveness to promote scientific research and the commercialisation of research outcomes in the Greater Bay Area, he said.

CityU and CAS have established four joint laboratories. Among them is the Joint Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Nanomechanics, which was selected as one of the “outstanding joint laboratories” last year. It will receive CAS’s sponsorship worth RMB1.6 million each year for a total of RMB8 million over five years. The other three joint laboratories between CityU and CAS are the Joint Laboratory for Robotics, Joint Laboratory for Functional Materials and Devices and Joint Laboratory on Neutron Scattering Science and Technology.

Members of the delegation visiting CAS included Mr Sunny Lee Wai-kwong, Vice-President (Administration); Professor Liu Chain-tsuan, University Distinguished Professor of the College of Engineering; Professor Jia Xiaohua, Chair Professor of Computer Science and Head of the Department of Computer Science; Professor Wang Xunli, Chair Professor of Physics and Head of the Department of Physics; and Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Yeung Kin Man Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences.