China Direct

University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus receives China’s highest scientific honour

 

CBI member, the University of Nottingham was delighted to report that Professor Martyn Poliakoff, Research Professor of Chemistry, was awarded China’s highest scientific honour for foreign scientists, the 2019 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award. The certificate was presented by Chinese President, Xi Jinping.

The award recognises the key role foreign scientists have played in China’s scientific development and reflects China’s increasing effort to diversify its scientific research partners over recent years.

Professor Poliakoff was the only British scientist among the 10 awardees.

Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff joined the University of Nottingham in 1979. Throughout his career, Professor Poliakoff has focussed on super-critical fluids, continuous reactions and their applications in Green Chemistry.

He was knighted in 2015 for “Services to the Chemical Sciences” and received an Honorary Fellowship of the Chinese Chemical Society the same year. Professor Poliakoff was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002 and later served as its Foreign Secretary and Vice-President.

Now in his seventies, Professor Poliakoff continues to travel to China to share his experience and expertise with students at the University of Nottingham Ningbo campus, where he is also a lecturer of BSC (Hons) Chemistry.

Sir Martyn is passionate about passing on his experience to support the emerging generation of young scientists. In addition to his work in Ningbo and the UK, Professor Poliakoff also appears on his own YouTube channel, with over one million followers, where he performs fascinating experiments with all 118 elements of the Periodic Table to popularise basic chemistry.

To read the press release in full, please follow the link.

To learn more about chemistry, please find a link to Professor Poliakoff’s YouTube channel here.

 

 

University of Nottingham launches machine learning for antibiotic resistance study in China

 

 

CBI member, The University of Nottingham has launched a new study surrounding the usage of machine learning to fight antibiotic resistance in farmed chickens in China.

Titled, ‘FARMWATCH’, the UK-led study aims to improve the health of farmed chickens in China and reduce the risk of disease and antibiotics transference to human populations, by using machine learning to find new ways to identify and pinpoint disease in poultry farms. If successful, farmers would begin to be able to rear chickens with a reduced need for antibiotics, lowering the risk of antibiotic resistance being transferred to consumers.

The £1.5m project is a partnership between researchers from the University of Nottingham’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and the China National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment. Funded by Innovate UK and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), the researchers are also collaborating with commercial partners, Nimrod Veterinary Products in the UK and New Hope Liuhe in China. 

Dr Tania Dottorini, Assistant Professor in Bioinformatics at The University of Nottingham, said: “This is a hugely important project that has the potential to transform the ways farm animals are treated and looked after. It also has significant impact on the heath of consumers of poultry products, with future ramifications to other farmed animals. […] For the first time we are using large-scale collection of data, statistical modelling and data mining powered by machine learning and cloud computing to find answers to some big problems faced by the farming industry. This project will contribute to sustainable development in China through improved health and well-being of vulnerable populations. We can then apply these learnings to the UK as well.” 

The researchers in Nottingham will be working with colleagues in China to take thousands of samples from the animals, humans and environment of nine farms, in three Chinese provinces over three years. This complex ‘big’ data will be analysed for new diagnostic biomarkers that will predict and detect bacterial infection, insurgence of ABR, and transfer to humans. This data will then allow early intervention and treatment, reducing spread and the need for antibiotics. 

Nottingham Ningbo University & Shanghai Institute designing new generation batteries

 

Salt is key ingredient for cheaper and more efficient batteries 

A new design of rechargeable battery, created using salt, could lead the way for greener energy. Researchers at CBI member the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) have joined forces with a specialist group at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences on designs for the novel energy store which allows for greater power while also lasting longer than conventional batteries.

                                      

Growing demand for electric vehicles and more sustainable forms of transport means finding new forms of energy storage such as batteries, super-capacitators and fuel cells. Currently a major challenge facing the industry is the poor performance quality of rechargeable batteries which often lose energy and power too quickly over time.

 

The collaboration team is led by Professor Jiangiang Wang, an expert in molten salts chemistry at SINAP, and Professor George Chen, Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in Electrochemical Technologies at UNNC, and has worked to design a possible solution outlined in a paper published in the journal ChemSusChem.

 

The paper, A Rechargeable High-Temperature Molten Salt Iron-Oxygen Battery, outlines research carried out using a novel and affordable rechargeable iron-oxygen battery containing a bi-phase electrolyte of molten carbonate and solid oxide. The first author of the paper, Dr Cheng Peng pointed out that the new design merges the merits of a solid-oxide fuel cell and molten metal-air battery, offering significantly improved battery reaction kinetics and power capability without compromising the energy capacity.

 

Professor Chen said: “Currently, the major challenge to rechargeable metal–oxygen batteries resides in the sluggish kinetics of electrode reactions, resulting in low energy and power densities. Therefore, activation of the reactions of both the negative and positive electrodes is crucial for high-performance re-chargeable metal–oxygen batteries.”

 

The solution to this challenge as confirmed by the team’s work is innovative but simple and low cost. Professor Wang explained: “We looked at elevating the working temperature of the metal-oxygen battery using metals such as iron as a base as this can be activated at a high temperature and keeps the cost low. Solid oxide fuel cells use tin or bismuth as negative electrode materials, but one issue was metal oxides forming between the metal and solid electrolyte and impeding the ion conductivity.”

 

Dr Peng added: “One type of high temperature metal-oxygen battery is the so called molten air battery which can use base metals for fast multiple electron charge transfer in molten salts. The molten salts have the capability to dissolve metal oxides. Our proposal looked at a molten salt iron-oxygen battery with a bi-phase electrolyte of molten carbonate and solid oxide which merges the merits of both types of battery.

 

“The result was a low-cost and long service life rechargeable high-temperature molten salt iron-oxygen battery with both high energy storage capacity and fast charging and discharging power capability."

The team behind the new design anticipate that the new battery has a great potential application in the area of grid-scale and renewable energy storage. Professor Chen, who is also leading a molten salt electrolysis laboratory in Nottingham, said that the new research behind the battery design has multiple applications. For example, molten salts are the ideal storage fluid for solar heat at high temperatures. Therefore, the molten salt iron-oxygen battery is in principle capable of storage of both the solar heat and electricity, which is very much desirable for both domestic and industrial energy needs.      

International collaboration and knowledge transfer is vital to reduce CO2 emissions in China's major cities

 

 

A new study from experts at CBI Member The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), looks at whether international collaboration will help to tackle pollution in some of China’s biggest cities.

In the research, led by Professor May Tan-Mullins from UNNC, a group of experts looked into one of the most promising low carbon planning initiatives in China – Shenzhen’s International Low Carbon City (ILCC).

‘The role of international actors in low-carbon transitions of Shenzhen’s International Low Carbon City in China’, which is published in the journal ‘Cities’, looks at the influence of a group of international partners involved in the ILCC.

The research is part of the wider collaborative project – Smart Eco Cities – which is a comparative study of Europe and China. The project is the first of its kind and provides the first comparative analysis of the green economy, and particularly smart city and eco-initiatives in China and Europe.

The Shenzhen ILCC is a national pilot low carbon project in China. It was launched in 2012 with the aim to become one of the national low carbon city planning models for all future low-carbon planning.

It is the first collaborative project between Dutch and Chinese partners, which then expanded to include other countries including Germany, France, Italy, Australia and the US.

In this study, experts from UNNC investigated the influence of these international groups in the development process of the ILCC, and the benefits of such partners in the long run, through knowledge transfer and gathering resources.

Located in the northern edge of the Longgang district in Shenzhen the ILCC is a transit-orientated development (TOD) and is located between three main cities of Shenzhen, Dongguan and Huizhou.

Similar to many other Chinese eco city or low-carbon city projects, international partners play a major role in the development of the ILCC.

The team used stakeholder mapping to identify three categories of international or foreign stakeholder groups; including:

• Foreign city governments/government agencies, that worked with the Chinese Government or helped with knowledge transfer
• Foreign research institutes
• Foreign enterprises , who are engaged in construction projects

This stakeholder mapping of the project shows that, while Chinese stakeholder play major and leading roles in initiating and planning the projects, foreign partners are also heavily involved in the ILCC.

Professor May-Tan Mullins from UNNC, says: “The remarkable difference about this ILCC is that there is not only one, but multiple international partners from various countries which have differential influential roles in the project. This is possibly due to the substantial amount of local and national incentives, which attract multi-partnerships throughout the project’s development process.”

The study found that while the roles of these countries are visible in the early stages of the project, their involvement varies depending on their method of investment and collaboration.

For example partners from Australia, Germany and the US are involved through investment but their mediums of interaction are different from each other:

Australia is focused on the education and research (social investment); Germany is focused on the development of a new high tech industrial zone which will showcase some of their technologies and may be seen as a knowledge transform platform, and the US is focusing on new low carbon community areas – which has a more marketing and business-orientated approach of involvement.

The mapping and analysis carried out by experts indicates that the relationship between the international partners’ involvement and the stage in which they initiated their collaborations and partnerships is significant.

Other key findings show:

• That the two key partners – the Netherlands and the US, have both engaged in the ILCC’s development at an early stage of the project.
• The level of investment and policy/planning processes are significantly lower than the technological knowledge transfer. This clearly highlights the initial level of gathering as a coherent method of collecting knowledge applying knowledge from multiple international experts into policy and practice.
• The ‘gathering stage’ of the project is vital – in gathering the knowledge and collaborations for the latter phases of the project.
• The importance of political relations between China and different European partners, and that the EU as a regional organisation plays a stronger role in coming to agreement with their Chinese counterparts.
• The importance of this project at the national level in China and how the development process was affected by this bilateral agreement.

The findings were based on a combination of sources, including existing research findings and new research findings from UNNC’s conducted interviews and surveys carried out in 2016 and 2017.

The current state of the ILCC, although slightly delayed, shows progress as a low carbon city. There has already been progress with technologies including retrofitting buildings, low-rise but high dense development of new zones, and better infrastructure as part of the whole planning process.

Projects with international partners include - anew industrial park (in partnership with Germany), and the new low-carbon community zone (in partnership with the US), and the new education zone (in partnership with Australia – that are due to complete in 2020

Professor Tan-Mullins said: “Some of the ongoing projects of the ILCC are directly benefitting from the involvement of ILCC’s international partners. Whilst it is too early to judge its progress, it is clear to see that these partnerships and subsequent knowledge transfer, are vital in order for China to work towards its low-carbon goals.”

The ILCC’S venture with multiple international partners is an attempt to grasp new opportunities of low carbon development, to provide a continuous marketing plan and engage with external partners and restructure the industrial sector of Pingdi, from a heavy polluting industrial zone, to low carbon new development zone.

British University powering China's future with clean coal tech

Powering China’s future with ‘clean coal’ technology

CBI member The University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) is playing a crucial role in the development of novel technologies for gasifying coal to harness its energy in a cleaner and more efficient way in the People’s Republic of China.

The initiative will lead to the construction of a large-scale coal gasification unit in Shandong province which will cleanly process and convert up to 4,000 tonnes of coal per day into synthesis gas or syngas, which will be used as a fuel. When commissioned in three years’ time, the plant will have the largest single gasifier with the largest capacity in the world.

UNNC’s team, led by Professor Tao Wu, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemical Engineering, is developing ‘clean coal’ technology as part of China’s National Key R&D Project. The plant will signify a major milestone in the global development and commercialisation of a gasification technology with significant UNNC inputs.

Working with a host of collaborators including the prestigious East China University of Science and Technology and Tsinghua University, as well as state-owned companies such as Yankuang Group, the alliance is developing and deploying cleaner energy solutions in China, with a focus on using coal in a much cleaner way.

Prof Tao Wu - Benefits

Professor Wu said, ‘It is important that the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, takes a lead, along with our research and industry partners, to rethink how we exploit our coal reserves and produce innovations that will improve our energy efficiency and achieve large-scale coal gasification. These efforts will enable the highly efficient production of bulk chemicals, electricity as well as synthetic natural gas, which are in high demand in China.

‘The coal gasification technology that we are developing, is going to be the most advanced technology of its kind. It will address the efficient conversion and air quality issues, with the potential for it to be applied in other countries such as India, which uses a lot of coal to produce power, as well as Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa.’

Construction of the facility will begin in late 2018 and is due to be completed in 2020. The plant will be the largest of its kind to be used for generating syngas and is expected to meet new and stricter regulations for efficiency and water consumption.

How it works

The plant will use coal-water-slurry as the feedstock to produce syngas (CO+H2) in a highly efficient and clean manner. The syngas can be used in gas turbines for power generation, or in synthetic reactors to produce bulk chemicals such as urea, methanol, synthetic diesel, etc.

Nottingham Uni drives UK-China medical primary care excellence

 

A unique collaboration between the UK and China is set to benefit GPs of the future – and their patients – by identifying the real challenges of the Chinese GP training system and driving forward improvements in clinical training.

This unique project, being led by academics and educators at CBI Member The University of Nottingham is using the experiences of patients, educators and trainee doctors themselves to recommend improvements to primary care training in both countries. Different from other ‘training China’s GP’ programmes, the project team undertook a 4 month in-depth exchanges in Nottingham and Ningbo, providing a detailed understanding from the grassroots level.

And, it is hoped, it will assist in addressing the serious shortage of GPs in China, which has been a focus of Government healthcare policy in the country in recent years.

The UK and China share a number of public health challenges, particularly chronic diseases in an ageing population, such as diabetes, dementia, heart conditions and respiratory conditions. Furthermore, how to attract the right medical students to enter the GP training system strategically is always difficult and not well addressed.

The partnership between the Evidence Based Healthcare Centre at University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus (UNNC), Health Education England, the national leadership organisation for education, training and workforce development in the health sector, and Ningbo First Hospital is to help equip new general practitioners to meet these challenges and provide the highest standards of care.

The initiative – the first of its kind in the world - is being led by Dr Prit Chahal, Honorary Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham and Associate Postgraduate Dean at Health Education England.

Dr Chahal said: “China has recognised that one very effective way of improving its wider healthcare would be by developing its primary care system. It is now looking to the UK as a model on which it can base the training of the general practitioners who will be crucial in delivering that system.

“However, the impact of this research is going to be felt in both countries – there are things about our system of training which could also be improved, so it’s about an exchange of ideas with the ultimate aim of raising the quality of healthcare for the ordinary citizens of both countries.”

In China, only 15 per cent of doctors are general practitioners, compared to the UK where around half of doctors who qualify become family doctors. But looking behind the numbers, there are cultural barriers that the project will be also be looking to overcome, in line with Government reforms aimed at tackling the issues.

Compared to their UK counterparts, Chinese GPs have very low status – both among their patients and their healthcare peers – and are comparatively poorly paid. Many current medical degrees do not include general practice training but, as a result of current attitudes, of those doctors who do train as GPs only a small percentage ever go into practice.

Many patients have little confidence in GPs and an ingrained mistrust of local clinics, which often suffer from a chronic shortage of qualified doctors, preferring instead to bypass these and go straight to the hospital. As a result, these are ay crisis point and are struggling to cope with the numbers coming through their doors.

In recent years, the Chinese Government has been driving the development and transformation of its healthcare service, with a particular focus on enhancing primary care. It has committed to increasing access for the Chinese population with a goal of two to three general practitioners per 10,000 people or 300,000 by 2020, and to five general practitioners per 10,000 people or 700,000 by 2030.

In 2016, an Expert Committee for Education and Training of General Practitioners supported by the Ministry of Health, under the administration of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, was established. Its remit is to provide advice on policies relating to the education and training of GPs in China, to establish basic standards and the evaluation of GP training and to inspect training centres.

As part of this national landscape, the Nottingham-Ningbo initiative is aiming to play a key role in helping to drive up standards in general practitioner training and education and has developed an exchange programme for GP educators. This programme will be focus on quality and capacity building, rather than numbers of training participants, which will help the local hospitals to build up its GP training system organically.

Two GP educators from Ningbo First Hospital spent two months in England interviewing their British counterparts, trainee doctors and patients and UK educators have recently repeated the process in China.

Dr Chahal added: “We have seen there is an open door spirit in terms of Ningbo colleagues wanting to help trainees to become the best doctors they can be by developing first class education and training programmes, which is encouraging and fills us with optimism for the future.

“The partnership is already starting to deliver some promising results – we have recently had a meeting with the senior medical chief at Ningbo First Hospital and offered an outline of some quick-win, short-term gains that could be implemented fairly swiftly and some longer term plans that could start to bear fruit within one to five years.”

This programme may also open up opportunities for UK healthcare organisations and businesses who want to enter the China market.

Dr Huang Kai, the project member from Ningbo First hospital said: “This new exchange model enabled young general practitioners from both countries to learn through the real world experience, significantly deepening their understandings of both systems and improving primary care training.”

Dr Ruan Liemin, Director of Ningbo First Hospital added: “This exchange is just a start, we hope more general practitioners from Nottingham and Ningbo could obtain valuable experience and knowledge through this collaboration platform in the future.”

The Evidence Based Healthcare Centre was established at UNNC back in 2015, with the support of the Ningbo Healthcare and Family Planning Committee.

It comes as part of a wider initiative, Nottingham Health China led by the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences launched in 2016, which is working to increase the amount and quality of research taking place between UK and Chinese healthcare institutions by forging new relationships between UK and China-based researchers and clinicians. A number of healthcare initiatives are being developed at different stages including lung cancer and hearing science.

It is focusing on a number of topics including nursing and midwifery, mental health, medical education, healthcare software, epidemiology and other key areas of need.

University of Nottingham Ningbo announces test bed for supercapattery technology

Researchers at CBI member the University of Nottingham Ningbo China are leading a major drive to develop the third generation of supercapattery – an electricity storage device that combines the advantages of batteries and super capacitors – to generate high power with high energy density.  

Ningbo is serving as a test bed for supercapattery technology where a team led by Professor George Chen, Li Dak Sum Chair Professor in Electrochemical Technologies, is working on energy materials developed at the University of Nottingham, UK, and related device engineering funded by the Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau in order to commercialise them in China.  

The initiative positions the University as an intellectual resource for industries such as car manufacturers and battery manufacturers, as well as research partners who can draw on the University’s strengths and capabilities.  

The supercapattery technology that is being developed in Ningbo, takes the unique needs of China’s cities into account and has the wider potential to be adopted as a viable on board energy storage solution for ships.  

Ningbo is one of the world’s largest and busiest ports. Given the city’s strategic importance, the port serves as the backdrop against which ships could potentially deploy this unique electrochemical energy storage technologies. Doing so could contribute towards cleaning up Ningbo’s air pollution problem.  

Professor Chen explained, ‘While a ship’s primary source of power is from a diesel engine, its emissions are what makes the difference. The emissions are very much diluted by the air on the open seas, but it becomes much more concentrated in the enclosed environment in a port where hundreds or thousands of ships come into dock or leave – we’re talking about large and substantial amounts of emissions, particularly from super tankers with over 100,000 displacement tonnes. So we are trying to reduce that. When the ships come into the port, they should turn off their diesel engines to stop their emissions, and engage their on-board electric power and storage systems.  

‘Our team is addressing this issue by developing more affordable and durable supercapatteries for electricity storage in the marine environment. We are working with our collaborators who specialise in machine drives. Switching to a hybrid system not only reduces emissions, it will also make your fuel consumption more efficient.’ 

The supercapatteries are based on a modular system, which is similar to batteries. These modular technologies can be combined to build large-scale storage devices, which can be used in homes and mobile phones, among a host of other applications.  

The team is also building on their preliminary work on supercapatteries to find a more efficient way of converting solar energy into electricity, as well as examining other research areas on renewable energy. 

Welcoming collaborators

Prof Chen is welcoming collaborators to join forces with his team to set up physical demonstrators which will show how the supercapattery technology will perform under operating conditions. This will determine the potential of the technology and enable it to reach a higher level of maturity. The demonstrator is an important way of delivering innovation and competitiveness to industry partners. 

For further enquiries, please contact Professor George Chen on [email protected] or +86 (0) 574 8818 0000 (Ext 9696).  

Nottingham University research improving lives in China

New growth for research that improves lives in China

Research carried out by academics at CBI member the University of Nottingham Ningbo is helping to improve the lives of people in China.

The University is leading the way in research into the areas of improved healthcare, greener transport, and sustainable environments.

The University, which made its home in Ningbo 14-years-ago, has heavily invested in research, increasing the number of funding partners, expanding its research facilities and recruiting 20 world-class chair professors.

It now stands poised for new growth in the shape of its PhD programme. Thanks to new government support the University will aim to recruit 1000 PhD students, shaping a first-class research portfolio.

Professor Chris Rudd said: “Research is in the DNA of our institution and we share the University of Nottingham’s passion for excellence with impact.

“We have made a commitment to investing in our staff, our students, our partners and our facilities and, as a result, we are seeing the remarkable growth in research outputs, the attraction of world-class talent and momentum for translating this research to impact not only regionally for the people of Ningbo but nationally and internationally.

“This is an exciting time for the University with further plans to develop our PhD programme and grow our research and innovation in the years to come.”

The University of Nottingham Ningbo was the first Sino-foreign University to open in China. During its history it has seen the opening of China’s first carbon-neutral building and helped 7,800 students through their university life to graduation and beyond.

Research in the themes of healthcare, transport and environment are already changing lives in China. This includes work into supercapatteries- new energy storage devices combing the properties of batteries and super capacitators, technology to reduce climate change and pollution, improving local healthcare and creating cleaner manufacturing systems.

Professor Chris Gerada, Vice-Provost (Research and Knowledge Transfer) said: “Research at our Ningbo campus is intertwined with the University of Nottingham’s global research strategy but with a focus on local priorities. Research teams at Ningbo work closely with hospitals and healthcare professionals to develop technologies and practices to improve lives of ordinary people.

“China is at the forefront of a more sustainable transport agenda. Our researchers are working closely with key stake holders in government and industry to develop electrical technologies, light-weight materials and energy storage and conversion technologies towards greener future transport systems. Together with much of our other research this is having a demonstrable impact in China and further afield. 

“All this would not be possible without our capable and dedicated staff and students. People are at the heart of our research strategy. We have been attracting world-leading chairs, fostering future research leaders and expanding our doctoral programmes and partnerships. These talented people underpin our capability in delivering high quality research and impact to our local and international community.”

UK & Chinese Universities engineering solutions to global challenges together

The next generation of engineers from the UK and China have met in Beijing to develop new technical and creative skills that will help them solve global challenges.

The students have been taking part in the Future Engineers’ Leadership and Innovation Academy, which was developed through the UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research (UK-China UCEER) and aims to build UK-China teams to support both countries’ manufacturing ambitions.

The Consortium was established over the past six months with seed funding from the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and led by the British Council in China. Initially, the Consortium is focusing on innovative technologies in intelligent manufacturing and sustainable energy that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions as both countries transition to a low carbon economy.

The Consortium is the first of its kind to partner leading UK universities with the top engineering research institutions in China. It is led by CBI member Queen’s University Belfast and Southeast University (Nanjing) and is made up of six UK universities, including CBI member University of Nottingham and nine universities in China.

Over a period of two weeks, 26 PhD students from across the Consortium, including two from the University of Nottingham have been enhancing their creative, technical, transnational communication, and leadership skills. The Academy is hosted by the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) and delivered by staff from Queen’s University Belfast and BIT.

Working together in transnational teams, the students have applied their innovation and leadership skills to topics such as disaster management using unmanned aerial vehicles. This is the first step in building enhanced transnational PhD educational opportunities between the UK and China in engineering. 

Southeast University and Queen’s University Belfast also intend to sign a Joint Declaration on establishing a UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research at the UK-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue, which will take place in London in December.

Professor Stan Scott, Dean for Internationalisation, Queen’s University Belfast and Director of the Future Engineers’ Leadership and Innovation Academy (FELIA) Programme, commented: “I’m delighted that after six months of planning FELIA has been successfully delivered in Beijing. During the two week programme the twenty-six research students from 13 universities across China and the UK have developed skills that have enabled them to work effectively in transnational teams. The networks they have tapped into will prove invaluable in their research careers and bodes well for productive UK-China collaboration.” 

Professor Andrew Long, the University of Nottingham’s Pro Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Engineering said, “The University of Nottingham is proud to play its part in the Future Engineers’ Leadership and Innovation Academy (FELIA) Programme. I am delighted that two of our students participated in this key initiative, which highlights the importance of education in engineering between the UK and China. As one of six Consortium partners, the University is proud to play its role in strengthening links between UK and China, as well as building expertise and nurturing our relationships with leading Chinese universities.”

Jazreel Goh, Director Education China at the British Council, said: “The UK and China have a long history of education collaboration. Indeed, with more than 275 joint programmes and institutes, the UK and China are world-leading partners in transnational education. But if we want to take forward our shared ambitions of increasing international collaboration, accelerating the growth of world-class universities, and boosting our engineering capacity, we need to look beyond institution-to-institution partnerships. With the establishment of the UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research we have taken a significant step towards making those ambitions a reality and initiating a new era in UK-China education collaboration.”

Prof Ye Zhirui, Director of International Co-Operation, South East University: "The UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research is unique and of great potential because it has specific goals and focus and aims at high level collaborations. The FELIA program is a perfect example of how the consortium can quickly respond to the need of the new era internationalization development of China higher education and the ambition of UK top universities to expand their presence in China. We really appreciate the efforts made by Queen’s University Belfast and BIT which has ensured the successful operation of this programme.”

Group photo of the Future Engineers Leadership and Innovation Academy

China Sterling Assets Report - Chinese Version

Dear CBI Members and Partners,

Kindly find the Chinese version of the CBI's first China Sterling Assets Report attached below for your reference.

Many thanks.

Download CBI China Sterling Assets Report_Chinese

Download CBI China Sterling Assets Report