Oxford University has entered into a partnership with the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute (JITRI), which will support a number of science research developments.
Earlier this month, the University of Oxford’s Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute (JITRI).
The agreement provides a general framework for Oxford and JITRI to support joint research projects through a fund dedicated to strengthening technological innovation and industrial research and development in the Jiangsu Province in China.
The work will take place as part of the Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research (OSCAR), a multidisciplinary research, innovation and technology centre.
Announced in December 2016, OSCAR will focus on research challenges and technologies that both complement the centre’s location and capitalise on the University’s strengths as a centre of academic research excellence.
OSCAR will be the University of Oxford's first overseas centre for physical science and engineering research, primarily expanding on activities from across the University's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. As a multi-disciplinary research, innovation and technology centre, it will initially focus on biomedical engineering, biomedicine, advanced functional materials, energy, environmental technology, financial mathematics, computer science and the health industry.
Professor Donal Bradley, Head of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at Oxford, said: 'Our ambition is that OSCAR will become a paradigm of scientific excellence focused on global challenges for which the location in China provides a key context’.
The partnership with JITRI is intended to address developments and innovations in a number of research fields, including biomedical engineering, life sciences, environmental protection and manufacturing technologies.
Under the agreement, a full-time OSCAR-JITRI Fellow will be appointed to facilitate collaboration and enhance links with JITRI’s specialised research institutes.
Professor Qing Liu, the President of the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute (JITRI), said: 'JITRI’s goal is to make the top scientific research results be actually applied by building relationships with leading universities around the world and also to help scientists to achieve their ideals.'