As one of the significant activities of the National Day of China--Expo Milano 2015, a Special Session of the China-Italy Innovation Forum was co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the Ministry of Education, University and Research of Italy. It was co-organized by Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the China-Italy Technology Transfer Center, and supported by Chinese Embassy in Italy. The Expo was held in Milan, Italy on June 8th. Several collaborative innovation cooperation agreements were signed at the Forum, including the agreements signed by Tongji University and the Chinese leader of the China-Italy Design Innovation Center.

WANG Yang, the Vice Premier of People’s Republic of China, and Stefania Giannini, Minister of Education, University and Research of Italy attended the session and made speeches. Nearly 150 government representatives, entrepreneurs and experts from both China and Italy, including PEI Gang, President of Tongji University, Giovanni Azzone, the Rector of the Polytechnic University of Milan, and ZHAO Ming, President of Huawei Honor, participated the session. The Forum addressed five key issues for the food industry: seed quality and harvest management, agriculture, food processing, logistics and packaging, and energy savings.

At the Forum, PEI Gang elaborated Tongji’s goal of building itself into a sustainable-development oriented world-class university. He said that the upgrading of design innovation and the development of the industrial chain calls for a vast amount of innovative talents. As the leader of the China-Italy Design Innovation Center, Tongji University attaches importance to promoting collaborative innovation and the cooperation between the university and related enterprises. It tries to facilitate the transformation of research results into commercial products by introducing a marketing relationship with governments and business enterprises, and forming a benign interactive innovation mechanism.

A memorandum of cooperation in the field of design innovation was signed by Tongji University and the Polytechnic University of Milan at the Forum. Based on the agreement signed last year to collaboratively establish the Innovation Hub, the two universities will cooperate with Huawei Honor to promote the cultivation of innovative design talents that are sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of both China and Italy. The agreement also supports the innovation and pioneering works of university students as they contribute to the industrial transformation. Furthermore, Tongji University signed an agreement with the International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media (the CUMULUS) to deepen their cooperation in culivating international innovative design talents involving interdisciplinary research and international communication, which is to be based on the Shanghai International Design Innovation College of Tongji University.

Translated by May Language Studio based upon

http://news.tongji.edu.cn/classid-9-newsid-47537-t-show.html