Representatives from Optics Valley, Wuhan University and HUST sign a scholarship donation agreement on March 30. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China) in Wuhan, the capital city of Central China's Hubei province, signed a scholarship donation agreement with Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) on March 30.

According to the agreement, starting this year, Optics Valley will provide a scholarship of 10 million yuan ($1.52 million) to each university, which will be donated over 10 years with 1 million yuan provided annually.

The scholarship for Wuhan University focuses on majors related to the life and health industry, while HUST's scholarship focuses on majors related to electronic information science.

Ma Jianhui, deputy Party secretary of HUST, said that the university will continue to cooperate with Optics Valley and encourage its graduates to work in and develop Optics Valley.

Li Jiancheng, vice-president of Wuhan University, said that the university will leverage its advantageous resources to support Optics Valley's sci-tech development.

Optics Valley set up a scholarship program in 2020, investing a total of 100 million yuan to establish 10 scholarships for 10 well-known "double first-class" universities, including scholarships for outstanding students, achievement transformation programs and industrial professionals (industrial talents who are affiliated to universities as professors).

"Double first-class" development refers to a university's efforts to build itself into a world-class university with world-class disciplines.

Establishment of the scholarship program is Optics Valley's strategy to cultivate and keep talents in the zone and to lay a talent foundation for building a sci-tech innovation highland and promoting high-quality development.