江苏留学网

A conference on the innovative development of advanced materials carried out by colleges and universities in the Yangtze River Delta region is held in Suzhou, Jiangsu province on Aug 28. [Photo/subaonet.com]

A conference held on Aug 28 on the innovative development of advanced materials carried out by colleges and universities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region has helped boost the integrated development of the YRD region, local media reported.

Liu Qing, head of the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, said that advanced materials are the cornerstone of the high-quality development of modern manufacturing and the development of clusters is a response to the growing demands of the new materials industry in the YRD region.

"Scientific resources in the YRD need to be integrated and shared, and we have chosen to focus on advanced materials," Liu said.

Gan Yong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and head of the YRD advanced materials research institute, has called for stronger partnerships among universities, key national laboratories, and enterprises in the YRD.

"We have to make interconnectivity the new normal and further integrate our resources," Yu said.

Yu's call was reflected by the establishment of an advanced materials innovation alliance for YRD universities at the conference. It includes around 30 prestigious schools, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, and the University of Science and Technology of China.

Zhang Ze, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Zhejiang University, said the conference also offered new possibilities for the formulation of a teaching platform for material experiments.

"I hope with the integration of different resources, we can accelerate our research and work out more practical results," Zhang said.