Changzhou University, located in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, has been actively encouraging its academics to do fieldwork and help deal with social issues.

The university's efforts have already yielded fruitful results.

For example, Song Linfei, the dean of the Qu Qiubai School of Government of Changzhou University, has been providing advice to government departments following his exhaustive research on topics such as national public health management, senior care, energy conservation and environment protection.

"Many innovative ideas result from investigation and research. Academic research will make a difference to social development," said Song.

In 2019, Professor Xu Defeng at the university's School of Pharmacy took up a position in a research institute established by Changzhou University and the Lichuan government to help with the city's poverty alleviation efforts.

One of the issues was dealing with the fact that agricultural raw materials have low value-added, meaning that local water shield growers in Lichuan could barely turn a profit.

An expert in value addition for traditional Chinese medicine, Xu spent nine months developing a facial mask made using locally-produced water shields. The product eventually proved popular in the market and generated millions of yuan for the city.

"Universities are places where science knowledge is explored, and research results should be used to solve practical problems," said Chen Qun, head of the Department for Party-related Affairs of Changzhou University.