̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - China

War in Ukraine widens global divide in public opinion

fpjl2 — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 08:57:42 +0000

'Mega-dataset' of public opinion covering 97% of the planet finds a 'world divided' between liberal US-backing populations and illiberal nations favouring China and Russia.

Forgotten heroes: Study gives voice to China's nationalist WWII veterans

ta385 — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 11:30:00 +0000

As the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary, new research gives voice to the country's still controversial nationalist (KMT) veterans and the volunteers determined to honour them.

Beyond the pandemic: re-learn how to govern risk

lw355 — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 15:15:30 +0000

As the pandemic crisis has played out across the world, different governments have taken different approaches to controlling the spread of virus and supporting citizens – with different outcomes. Can we start to draw conclusions on how best to govern future catastrophic risks?

Cambridge and Nanjing break ground on 'smart cities' Centre

plc32 — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 04:03:44 +0000

Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope joined Zhang Jinghua, Party Secretary of Nanjing City Party Committee and Nanjing Deputy Mayor Jiang Yuejian to turn the first soil at the site where the Centre's dedicated building will rise in Nanjing's Jiangbei New Area.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge ̽��ֱ��-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation will establish a home for joint research and innovation in collaboration with the Chinese government, industry and China's global research universities that is dedicated to the future of creating 'smart' cities.

"Here in Nanjing, an ancient city and former imperial capital, we are embarking on a unique enterprise," Vice-Chancellor Toope said at the groundbreaking ceremony. " ̽��ֱ��innovations emerging from this Centre will enable the development of 'smart' cities in which sensors can enable sustainable lifestyles, improve healthcare, limit pollution and make efficient use of energy."

Cambridge and its Chinese partners will share revenue derived from the commercialisation of Intellectual Property (IP) developed at the Centre. It is the ̽��ֱ��’s first overseas enterprise at this scale.

Funded by the Nanjing Municipality for its first five years, the project will have its own dedicated building as a pilot urban development based on high levels of technological innovation.

At the heart of the new Centre’s activities will be research into technologies that support a modern 21st century city with integrated IT, health care and building management. Innovations emerging from the Centre will enable the development of 'smart' cities in which sensors – applied at the individual level and all the way through to the level of large infrastructure – will enable sustainable lifestyles.

As well as supporting health and wellbeing in new cities, the new Centre will help deliver efficient energy use through its academic and entrepreneurial activities.

̽��ֱ��agreement between Cambridge and Nanjing will fund positions in Nanjing, both academic and management, and will allow Cambridge-based academics to engage with specific, long-term projects in Nanjing. It will also support the establishment of a professorship, based in Cambridge, with responsibility as the Centre’s Academic Director.

̽��ֱ��project has been driven by Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, although it is hoped that there will be opportunities to widen participation to other departments and Schools. IP generated by research funded through the Centre will be licensed for commercialisation by Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s innovation branch, Cambridge Enterprise.

̽��ֱ��Centre will seek to demonstrate the power of collaboration with China’s universities, industry, government and other partners to conduct the kind of academic research of excellence today that will make life better for the city dwellers of tomorrow.

One of the two initial projects already approved is to create a high resolution scanner that can provide a low-cost easily accessible method for examining difficult areas of the body, such as bent spines, without using large and expensive CT scans.

That project will be led by Cambridge Engineering Department Professor Richard Prager, in collaboration with China's Southeast ̽��ֱ�� and established local ultrasonic manufacturer Vinno.

A second identified project led by Principal Investigator Professor Toni Vidal-Puig from Cambridge’s Clinical Biochemistry Department, will study the associated complications of increased obesity in China.

Both themes are closely linked to the focus area of local partner, NIHA (Nanjing International Healthcare Area).

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor was joined at the groundbreaking ceremony by representatives from partners Nanjing ̽��ֱ��, Southeast ̽��ֱ��, Peking ̽��ֱ��. Tsinghua ̽��ֱ��, Fudan ̽��ֱ�� and Zheijiang ̽��ֱ�� as well as the Academic Director of Cambridge ̽��ֱ��-Nanjing Centre, Professor Daping Chu of Cambridge's Electrical Engineering Department, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Relations Eilis Ferran.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Nanjing Municipal Government have broken ground on the Cambridge ̽��ֱ��-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation.

Here in Nanjing, an ancient city and former imperial capital, we are embarking on a unique enterprise.

Vice-Chancellor Stephen J Toope

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cambridge and Tsinghua sign joint research initiative

plc32 — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 13:37:34 +0000

Climate change, food security, chronic disease and other global challenges all require the kind of scientific advances that can only be vastly accelerated by combining the research capacity and intellectual power of global research universities.

Tsinghua and Cambridge have a long history of collaboration in the United Kingdom and China. This new strategic research agreement will deepen our relationship and help us scale up our efforts to address real global issues.

Tsinghua created a £200 million Bio-Innovation centre at the Trinity College-owned Cambridge Science Park last year. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Tsinghua have shared an engineering forum since 2013 and there are many other active academic research collaborations in areas such as advanced materials, nuclear engineering or energy and climate policy.

"By focusing on the grand challenges faced by our global communities, such as climate change and emerging technologies, I believe our collaboration will be a powerful engine to drive the academic fusion and synergetic developments between China and UK, as well as with global academic communities,” Tsinghua ̽��ֱ�� Vice-President of Research Professor You Zheng said.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is dedicated to seeking out collaborations wherever they offer the prospect of bolstering its mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

“We are delighted to enter into this joint research initiative with Tsinghua ̽��ֱ�� which will provide increased momentum to the many existing collaborations between academics at the two universities and provide a framework for setting up new research collaborations in areas of mutual interest,” ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional and International Relations Professor Eilis Ferran said.

Summer 2021 update: Call for proposals 2012/22

With COP26 taking place in Glasgow on 31 Oct – 12 Nov 2021, this initiative is issuing a call to fund collaborative projects that address the challenges relating to the climate emergency and the transition to a zero-carbon future. ̽��ֱ��initiative intends to fund around 10 projects for a project duration of not more than 12 months. ̽��ֱ��deadline for submissions is Friday 5 November 2021.

Find out more

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Tsinghua ̽��ֱ�� signed a joint research initiative on Monday as part of efforts by both universities to tackle the urgent challenges faced by humanity.

We are delighted to enter into this joint research initiative with Tsinghua ̽��ֱ��

Cambridge Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Eilis Ferran

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Levels of autism in China similar to the West, joint Chinese-UK study shows

cjb250 — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:52:15 +0000

̽��ֱ��research was carried out by an international team of researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, UK, and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and Chinese ̽��ֱ�� of Hong Kong. It is the result of an international partnership launched in 2013.

Autism spectrum conditions – which include autism and Asperger’s syndrome – are characterised by impairments in social interaction and communication, alongside the presence of unusually repetitive behaviour and narrow interests, difficulties adjusting to unexpected change, and sensory hyper-sensitivity.

Autism was first described in Western cultures, and only later recognised in Asian countries. Around one in 100 school age children in the UK is autistic, but autism prevalence in China has been reported to be lower than in the West. ̽��ֱ��reasons for this difference are that most studies in China have only included the special school population, overlooking the mainstream school population; and that most studies in China have not used validated and reliable screening and diagnostic methods.

“Understanding the prevalence of autism is important because of its relevance to planning services to support those living with the condition, as well as their families,” said Professor Carol Brayne from the Cambridge Institute of Public Health.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge (ARC) added: “We need to study autism outside Western populations, since most of the research to date has only been carried out in the West. This collaboration with colleagues in China is so valuable to help us understand what is universal and what is culture-specific in autism research.”

To address the gap in understanding autism in China, the researchers tested the total autism prevalence in mainstream and special schools in Jilin City, and mainstream school autism prevalence in Jiamusi and Shenzhen cities. They screened children aged 6 to 10 years old in the three cities using the Childhood Autism Screening Test (or CAST), a 37-item questionnaire, completed by parents, and developed and validated by the Cambridge team. ̽��ֱ��questionnaire gives a score of 0 to 31, and children scoring 15 or above were then given a clinical assessment. ̽��ֱ��results are published in the journal Molecular Autism.

In Jilin City, from a total population of 7,258, the team identified 77 cases of autism, equating to a prevalence of 108 per 10,000, very similar to that found in the West.

In Shenzhen and Jiamusi cities, only data for children in mainstream education was available; in Shenzhen City, 42 out of every 10,000 children in mainstream education had autism, and in Jiamusi City this figure was 19 per 10,000. In all three cities, the researchers identified new cases of autism in mainstream schools, confirming that there is under-diagnosis of autism in China.

“Contrary to previous studies, we have shown that the prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in China is in line with that found in the West,” said Dr Sophia Xiang Sun, who conducted this study as part of her PhD at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� and who is now based in the Star Kay Bridge Research Centre for Children with Autism in Xiamen, China.

Professor Patrick Leung, from the Chinese ̽��ֱ�� of Hong Kong, said: “Previous research into the autism spectrum in China has mainly focused on the most severe subtype, childhood autism. We have been able to use a standardised screening methodology, allowing us to compare the results with Western countries to show that autism occurs broadly at the same rate, irrespective of culture.”

Dr Carrie Allison, from the Cambridge Autism Research Centre, commented: “Completing this study with colleagues in China has been nothing short of remarkable. It has involved translating Western autism screening instruments into Chinese, training Chinese clinicians in autism diagnosis, and working with national Chinese agencies, screening in three Chinese cities.”

Professor Fiona Matthews, the statistician on the Cambridge team and now based in Newcastle ̽��ֱ��, noted: “A strength of this study is the near universal response rate that is possible in China, which we rarely achieve in the West, making the epidemiology far more representative.”

̽��ֱ��research was funded by the Autism Research Trust, the NIHR CLAHRC for East of England, the Chinese ̽��ֱ�� of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the Medical Research Council UK.

Reference
Xiang Sun et al. Autism prevalence in China is comparable to Western prevalence. Molecular Autism; 28 Feb 2019; DOI: 10.1186/s13229-018-0246-0

̽��ֱ��first large-scale study of autism in China has revealed that around one in a hundred people in China has an autism spectrum condition – the same figure as found in the West.

Contrary to previous studies, we have shown that the prevalence of autism spectrum conditions in China is in line with that found in the West

Dr Sophia Xiang Sun

Winston Smith

Kunming: Bamboo Temple

Yes

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Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike

Cambridge and Shandong ̽��ֱ�� sign agreement to support innovation and entrepreneurship

sc604 — Thu, 31 May 2018 13:18:21 +0000

̽��ֱ��agreement between Cambridge and Shandong Universities was signed earlier this week, and will establish the Shandong ̽��ֱ�� School of Innovation Intermediary and the Innovation Institute in Qingdao. Qingdao is the largest city in Shandong province and supports a rapidly-growing high-tech sector: Shandong ̽��ֱ�� opened a campus there in 2017. ̽��ֱ��new school will be supported by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm, Shandong ̽��ֱ�� and Qingdao Municipal Government.

̽��ֱ��signing ceremony was witnessed by Professor Fan Liming, President of Shandong ̽��ֱ�� and Professor Eilís Ferran, Cambridge’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional and International Relations.

As part of the agreement, Cambridge will bring its expertise in commercialisation to aid technology transfer processes and encourage entrepreneurship in Shandong Province. ̽��ֱ��two universities will explore ways to improve interactions, build a world-class institution and cultivate talent. They will also support faculty and students to put their results into practice.

“We will help to establish an enterprise team in Qingdao and share our experience and knowledge to help businesses innovate and thrive, improve the university campus and support the city’s development,” said Dr Tony Raven, chief executive of Cambridge Enterprise.

In her speech, President Fan Liming said that innovation and technology transfer are of great importance to the university’s development and its responsibility to give back to society. ̽��ֱ��signing of the agreement is an important beginning for the two universities to promote the construction of the School.

With the support of Qingdao government, both sides will work closely to promote the development of the School in accordance with the framework and plans that both have agreed upon. It will help to contribute to the social and economic development both at local and national levels, and will also enhance the people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK. Professor Ferran expressed her appreciation to President Fan Liming for her strong support to the cooperation between the two universities.

“Cambridge attaches great importance to the cooperation with Shandong ̽��ֱ��,” she said. “This agreement will deepen the relationship between our two universities and our two countries through the collaboration of universities, industry and governments.”

Tony Raven, the CEO of Cambridge Enterprise, and Sun Fengshou, Director of the Department of International Affairs of Shandong ̽��ֱ��, signed the agreement.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has signed an agreement with one of China’s largest universities to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in one of China’s fastest-growing high-tech clusters.

L-R: Professor Eilís Ferran, Dr Tony Raven, Sun Fengshou, Professor Fan Liming

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Cambridge and Nanjing launch strategic collaboration

ag236 — Tue, 27 Mar 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Professor Stephen Toope, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Vice-Chancellor, today signed an agreement to formalise a strategic partnership with the Nanjing Municipal Government.

̽��ֱ��creation of the Cambridge ̽��ֱ��-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation will entail the establishment of a joint research centre and the sharing of revenue derived from the commercialisation of intellectual property. It is the ̽��ֱ��’s first overseas enterprise at this scale.

Funded by Nanjing Municipality for five years in the first instance, the project will have its own dedicated building in Nanjing’s Jiangbei New Area – a pilot urban development based on high levels of technological innovation.

At the heart of the new Centre’s activities will be research into technologies that support a modern 21^st century city with integrated IT, health care and building management. Innovations emerging from the Centre will enable the development of 'smart' cities in which sensors – applied at the individual level and all the way through to the level of large infrastructure – will enable sustainable lifestyles.

As well as supporting health and wellbeing in new cities, the new Centre will help deliver efficient energy use through its academic and entrepreneurial activities.

̽��ֱ��agreement will fund positions in Nanjing, both academic and management, and will allow Cambridge-based academics to engage with specific, long-term projects in Nanjing. It will also support the establishment of a professorship, based in Cambridge, with responsibility as the Centre’s Academic Director.

̽��ֱ��project has been driven by Cambridge’s Department of Engineering, although it is hoped that there will be opportunities to widen participation to other departments and Schools. IP generated by research funded through the Centre will be licensed for commercialisation by the ̽��ֱ��’s innovation branch, Cambridge Enterprise.

Speaking just before the official signing of the agreement, held at the British embassy in Beijing, Professor Toope said: “This is only the most recent example of our collaboration with Chinese partners – but it is by far the most ambitious to date. And it is very exciting indeed.”

“We see it as an essential part of Cambridge’s contribution to society to tackle some of the great world problems. But we cannot do this on our own. There is a proverb: ‘You cannot clap with just one hand’. To me this means that we can only accomplish great things by working together – which is what we will be doing with Nanjing.”

Mr. Luo Qun, a member of the Standing Committee of Nanjing's Municipal Party Committee, and Deputy Party Secretary of the Party Committee of Jiangbei New Area, added: "We sincerely hope that both sides will rely on this new Centre to push the world's technological frontiers and to promote the integration of science, technology, industry and financial innovation."

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor was joined by Professor Sir Mark Welland, Head of the ̽��ֱ��'s Electrical Engineering Division and Master of St Catharine's College. ̽��ֱ��signing of the agreement was witnessed by H.E. Dame Barbara Woodward, the United Kingdom's ambassador to China.

Knowledge and development

̽��ֱ��launch of the Cambridge ̽��ֱ��-Nanjing Centre of Technology and Innovation came only a few days after the Vice-Chancellor addressed the annual China Development Forum, in Beijing.

Speaking on the subject of 'Knowledge Capital and development for all', Professor Toope said: "Of all the intangible assets that underpin our knowledge capital, the most precious is people. It is people who generate the new ideas; it is people who ask the searching questions, and collect the relevant data to answer them; it is people who make the discoveries; it is people who bring those discoveries to the market, and create the intellectual property. ̽��ֱ��conclusion I draw from this is that, for countries and institutions wishing to expand their knowledge capital, the single most important investment is in their human capital."

He singled out equality and diversity as essential to the sustainability of knowledge-based capital, before concluding: “'Knowledge itself is power' is a famous line attributed to one of Cambridge’s most famous graduates – 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon. ̽��ֱ��question before us – particularly those of us in universities – is how we build and deploy and share all that knowledge for the greater good."

̽��ֱ��new joint centre will support innovative research into smart cities and fully integrated urban environments.

We see it as an essential part of Cambridge’s contribution to society to tackle some of the great world problems. But we cannot do this on our own. We can only accomplish great things by working together – which is what we will be doing with Nanjing.

Prof Stephen Toope

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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