Southeast University sets up a collaborative innovation center for new-generation building industrialization. [Photo/seu.edu.cn]

East China's Jiangsu province has invested 3.09 billion yuan ($481.73 million) in the collaborative innovation and development of local universities since 2012, Xinhua Daily reported on April 29.

In the past eight years, Jiangsu universities and research institutes have been striving to break disciplinary and industrial barriers, attract innovative resources, create new talent cultivation patterns, and be integrated into regional development.

For example, the cluster of new-type nano materials in Suzhou Industrial Park was recently ranked as a national advanced manufacturing cluster. The steady progress of the local nano industry was partly contributed by Soochow University's collaborative innovation center for nano technology. It has become an important and convenient channel between colleges and enterprises, providing a bright future for regional development.

Statistics show that the number of collaborative innovation centers set for colleges' direct support to the manufacturing industry and emerging industries have reached 45 and 71 respectively.

The one established by the prestigious Southeast University for new-generation building industrialization has seen concerted efforts from its schools of civil engineering, architecture, energy conservation, transportation, and law, as well as Tongji University, Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, and Hunan University. The center will boost the development in areas including public buildings, rail traffic, and major energy projects.

Ge Daokai, director-general of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, said the province will place more emphasis on talent cultivation to further boost the development of collaborative innovation centers in the new era.

He said that talent will help colleges build research teams with international influence, set up internationalized talent cultivation system, and realize more core theoretical and technological breakthroughs.