The Suzhou government and Hohai University reach an agreement on Feb 28 to set up a research institute and graduate school in the city's Xiangcheng district. [Photo/ourjiangsu.com]

With Suzhou's GDP exceeding 2 trillion yuan ($307.80 billion) in 2020, the city plans to start focusing more on improving its higher education, local media reported.

The Suzhou government and Hohai University reached an agreement on Feb 28 to establish a research institute and graduate school in the city's Xiangcheng district. The two sides will focus on scientific research, the application of new innovations, talent cultivation, international exchanges, and Sino-foreign cooperative education. Major research areas will include smart city construction and management, environmental protection, new energy and materials, the application of electronic information technology, mechanical engineering, and intelligent manufacturing.

"I believe that within five years, the school will enroll 2,000 students and begin contributing to local industrial transformation and research commercialization," said Lu Guobin, vice-president of Hohai University.

A day earlier, on Feb 27, the government of Suzhou Industrial Park inked a cooperation agreement with Nanjing Medical University and Shandong University. The three sides will co-build an innovation center to improve the bio-medicine industrial chain and develop a more complete industrial ecosystem.

"Our cooperation will bring in more experts, boost the application of scientific research results, and serve the public," said Tang Jinhai, vice-president of Nanjing Medical University.

Southeast University has also deepened cooperation with Suzhou Industrial Park to turn its original research institute into a branch campus. The school is expected to enroll 4,500 students by 2025 and introduce new majors related to the application of artificial intelligence and health data science.

Suzhou is home to a number of universities and research institutes. [Photo/ourjiangsu.com]

Suzhou is currently home to branch campuses of many leading domestic universities, including the University of Science and Technology of China, Renmin University of China, Nanjing University, Southeast University, and Northwestern Polytechnical University. A number of renowned Chinese and foreign schools, including the University of Oxford, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Singapore, Xi'an Jiaotong University, China Agricultural University, and Xiamen University, have set up research institutes in the city.