King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has signed strategic cooperation agreements with leading academic and commercial institutes in Shenzhen, China, aimed at strengthening the university's role as a leading institution in research excellence, development and innovation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Shenzhen, the third largest city in China, is also known as the “Chinese Silicon Valley” as it is a major global center that includes many leading institutions in the field of technology, manufacturing and research.
Professor Tony Chan led a delegation of university representatives to meet with a group of leaders there to forge partnerships that will accelerate knowledge sharing and commercialize impactful and innovative technologies that can address global challenges. The list of signatories with the university included the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, Shenzhen Inox Academy, International Academy of Digital Economy, X Institute, Southern University of Science and Technology, Expopark, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, and Shenzhen Big Data Research Institute.
These agreements aim to take advantage of the complementary strengths between KAUST and these scientific institutions to expand capabilities in the areas of innovation and industrial exchange, technology transfer and project incubation, knowledge exchange of talents and materials, joint laboratories and research and development platforms, and entrepreneurship training programs.
President Chan stated that the reason for choosing the city of Shenzhen for this visit is that Shenzhen “was previously a small fishing village, and in just four short decades it has a gross domestic product that exceeds Seoul, the capital of South Korea. This could only be achieved by building an innovation-supporting ecosystem that is one of the most effective and efficient systems in the world. From this visit, we aspire to benefit from the ideas and experiences that led to Shenzhen achieving this miracle.”
Cheng Boyi and Cheng Hongbo, two members of the Municipal Council of Shenzhen, during their meeting with President Chan to discuss cooperative exchange, stressed that KAUST and Shenzhen have achieved rapid development in the fields of education, technology and talent nurturing, and there is fertile space between them for cooperation in various fields, and continue to support And expand exchanges and cooperation in scientific and technical research, innovation, entrepreneurship, talent training and other areas of mutual development.
The Shenzhen agreements are another example of the development of relations between Saudi-Chinese scientific institutions and a continuation of previous efforts and partnerships between KAUST and the Chinese authorities, which were reflected in the increase in the number of Chinese students in KAUST, who make up nearly 20% of the total number of university students, in addition to 34 % of postdoctoral researchers and 9% of distinguished faculty members at the university are from China, and the KAUST alumni branch in China is the largest and most interactive of all branches.
It is noteworthy that President Chan met about 130 Chinese graduates at a special dinner as part of his visit to Shenzhen. It is expected that KAUST's research relations will increase in the future as a result of the Shenzhen agreements, which the university hopes will in turn contribute to advancing development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and strengthening its partnership with the People's Republic of China.
Okaz (Jeddah)