A Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese universities has been signed by the University of Aberdeen and the University of Abertay Dundee. The agreements, signed during Education Secretary, Fiona Hyslop’s visit to China this month, opens the way for stronger research collaboration and exchange between the Scottish universities and their Chinese counterparts.
Hyslop, who witnessed the signing of the memoranda said:
"China presents us all with an opportunity to drive forward sustainable economic growth for Scotland, and collaborations like Aberdeen's show how Scottish research and technology can play a big part in the global marketplace.
“Abertay’s partnership with Shanghai University shows how Scottish institutions can really seize the opportunities opening up, benefiting them and Scotland as a whole.”
Aberdeen University’s agreement is based on one of Scotland’s research strengths, environmental technologies. The university signed the memorandum with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to create an Institute of Environmental Technologies. The focus of collaboration will be the rapid urbanisation which has occurred in China with the aim of developing science-based technologies for urban pollution control and technology transfer. To move the initiative forward, the university is setting up an office in the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute.
Professor Dominic Houlihan, Vice Principal for Research and Commercialisation, at the University of Aberdeen, who signed the agreement on behalf of the university, said:
"The speed of China's development means it can learn a great deal both in legislation and technology from the western world's slow response to the environmental consequences of industrialisation. The University of Aberdeen is uniquely placed in our expertise at the applied and academic levels to develop genuine working collaboration with the Chinese partners.”
Abertay University’s agreement was forged with Shanghai University (SU). The university’s new understanding with SU will see greater staff and student exchanges taking place. The two universities have collaborated in the past in the area of digital art, computer-games technology and computer-arts research. Earlier this year, Abertay’s School of Computing and Creative Technologies signed a faculty-level agreement with SU’s Digital Arts College to allow students from the Chinese course to articulate on to Abertay’s computer games courses. The memorandum is designed to progress this initiative and see other such partnerships develop across a range of disciplines.
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