China-US scientific collaboration pushes for innovative results

Trans-X Innovation Ecosystem of Tsinghua Holdings and the global journal Science held a signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding on Sunday, to explore opportunities for scientific collaboration.

The cooperation between TIE and Science/AAAS, will be in effect for five years. It aims to establish a general framework for ongoing discussions in pursuit of a strategic cooperation relationship between the two parties.

The initiative will allow the two to promote greater collaboration on talent training, including high-level training programs in science, technology, management and education, especially in areas related to scientific thinking, methods, writing and publishing.

They will also explore the possibility in evaluating and certifying trainees on their scientific literacy and abilities, and recommend research programs and job positions to them as post-training services.

TIE will work with the journal to organize high-level and international academic conferences. They will outline a proposal for each conference that details the theme, organization, dates and budget.

Other aspects of the cooperation include hosting communication activities, with editors of Science attending on site or remotely via video chats, and to explore the possibility of establishing international prizes in such areas as artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced medical devices and micro and nano technologies.

The MoU was signed by Li Zhongxiang, vice-president of Tsinghua Holdings, and Bill Moran, publisher of Science family of journals, and witnessed by Cui Tianhong, Distinguished McKnight Professor with the University of Minnesota and a chief researcher at Tsinghua University, and Cai Jian, professor of Management Practice at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University and member of TIE global executive committee.

Li said at the signing ceremony that TIE's partnership with Science/AAAS is expected to improve China's scientific and innovation capacity by providing high-level training to Chinese innovators, innovative companies and entrepreneurs.

Tsinghua Holdings, the technology investment arm of China's Tsinghua University, launched TIE in September 2017 to boost communications and exchanges on science, technology and talented human resources on a worldwide basis.

The project, headquartered at Beijing Future Science Park in Changping district, aims to upgrade existing entrepreneurship incubation systems and works to meet the technological innovation demands in industries and regional economies.

TIE will also join forces with top domestic institutions and global technology elites, gathering wisdom, experience and abilities to advance a progression from technological to industrial innovation.

Moran said TIE has attracted and gathered China's most dynamic innovative enterprises and entrepreneurs, as well as scientific innovators and researchers. The American Association for the Advancement of Science and its Science family of journals could help to improve their scientific spirit, quality and methods and to create and nurture scientific and industrial innovations with great value to human development.

Science, founded by Thomas Edison and published by AAAS in 1880, today ranks as the world's largest circulation general science journal. Many important scientific achievements, such as the map of the human genome and the first photo of the surface of Mars, made their debut in its pages. Its publisher AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and also an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of all people.

AAAS has 21 professional affiliates and 262 scientific research and academic institutes, providing services to 10 million people around the world.

China has currently surged to become the world's largest producer of scientific research articles, with 426,000 science and engineering academic articles, according to an analysis released by the US National Science Foundation in January. The United States has 409,000 articles of such kinds. But the US still outpaces China when it comes to articles that are in the top 1 percent cited.

Cui said it indicates that innovative activities are active in industries, but research-based, original and significant scientific innovations are still not enough in quantity. The cooperation reached by TIE and Science could help to train scientific thinking and methods of young Chinese scientists and researchers and to strengthen China's innovation capability.