The 2024 Industry-Academia Research Cooperation Conference took place in Hohhot, the capital city of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Aug 14.

Nearly 500 guests attended the conference, including officials from autonomous region departments and representatives from universities, research institutions and enterprises. The theme was "Deepening Industry-Academia Research Cooperation and Empowering High-Quality Development.”

The conference facilitated the signing of nearly 100 cooperation agreements totaling 21 billion yuan ($2.88 billion).

These agreements cover six key areas: new energy and new materials, strategic resources and ecological conservation, equipment manufacturing, digitalization, modern agriculture and animal husbandry, and biotechnology.

Three significant domestic technological achievements were unveiled during the event, alongside the announcement of 445 high-quality outcomes. The Inner Mongolia Academy of Science and Technology held signing ceremonies with 62 innovative teams and publicly disclosed over 300 technical requirements gathered from the academy's research.

The conference also featured thematic forums, with keynote speeches from esteemed academicians, including Zhao Tianshou from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ge Shirong from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.