12 Days of SIN China

As I sit in the office feeling festive, I’m wondering how SIN China’s highlights this year would be represented, if they were numbers in the “12 Days of Christmas” song. This might not be a normal activity, but here is my attempt….

1 Golden Era

2 hundred of China’s regulators trained in cosmetics product safety assessment techniques, part of an ongoing project to support China in adopting alternative methods for animal testing. This will reduce entry barriers to markets worth £75bn.

3 High Level Dialogues setting the framework for UK-China science and innovation collaboration. These were the State Visit, People to People and Economic and Financial Dialogue.

4 Ministerial Level Visits from Rt Hon Sajid Javid, Anna Soubry, Martin Donnelly and Sir Mark Walport drove forward practical collaboration is a range of fields including: space, robotics, engineering, manufacturing, energy and low carbon.

5 out of 7 Strategic Emerging Industries established as the focus for UK-China late stage R&D collaboration. Topics include new energy, new energy vehicles, life sciences, ICT and satellites. The agreement was formalised during the State Visit, witnessed by the Prime Minister and President Xi.

£69bn land remediation market opened due to a SIN and UKTI led project bringing together policy makers, leading academics, businesses and local governments to establish a framework for UK-China collaboration in contaminated land.

70 UK and Chinese researchers in a hotel in Shanghai exploring collaboration on antimicrobial resistance, as part of the Newton programme Research Council joint call. The UK and China are working closely on this challenge, developing new R&D programmes alongside policy collaboration.    

£8m Newton Research and Innovation Bridges matched funded by China. This flagship Newton programme led by Research Councils and InnovateUK will bring together businesses and researchers to develop the technologies of the future in healthcare, urbanisation, energy and agri-tech.

All 9 Newton Delivery Partners are now active in China and working on a diverse range of issues to tackle global challenges and address poverty elevation. The Newton Fund makes the UK the only country to dedicate science collaboration budget.

10 Tech-partnering topics including Bio-pharma; Agri-technology; Internet of Things; Sustainable Manufacturing; Advanced Materials; Terahertz Technology. This year we conducted an evaluation of our five-year long tech-partnering programme, which brings together universities and businesses to upscale research. Outcomes included two joint centres; five commercial joint ventures; three commercial licensing agreements; over £10m of R&D and commercial income secured; and projected commercial gain of £43m.

11 new scholarships on the Square Kilometre Array for Chinese students at the University of Manchester. We hope this pilot will be expanded. The SIN team gained support from the Chinese Government to help secure the SKA Headquarters in the UK. SKA collaboration is set to grow, focusing on big data and high performance computing.

12^th Five Year plan coming to an end and looking to China’s 13^th Five Year Plan, where Innovation will be key. This is fantastic opportunity to collaborate with China to drive economic growth through research and innovation in the Golden Era.