On May 27, Brian Boyle, Vice-president of University of New South Wales (UNSW) and David Waite, Deputy Dean of School of Engineering of UNSW met Wen Jianping, President of OriginWater, in Beijing, warmly inviting OriginWater to join the China-Australia Torch Innovation Precinct program and to set up a what will be a top global water research center. Wen Jianping said they would fully support the torch innovation precinct program, deepen cooperation with UNSW, and jointly develop the most competitive and advanced technologies in the field of water. 

In this meeting, David Waite introduced to Wen Jianping in detail the development plan of the Torch Innovation Precinct, and put forward a vision for cooperation. It has been learned that Torch Innovation Precinct is a new platform for China-Australia Sci and Tech industrial cooperation, and on April 14th 2016, in the presence of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the Torch High-Tech Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Torch Innovation Precinct, jointly initiating the project construction mainly in the fields of energy and environment, advanced material and biotechnology, etc. 

Brian Boyle said, OriginWater has a great influence in the field of water in China and is the most important partner of UNSW, and the two sides have always maintained a close cooperative relation. 

This meeting was a further discussion following the UNSW President Ian Jacobs’s and his following delegation’s field visit to OriginWater’s Beijing R&D Base on Apr.12. In their previous trip, Jacobs was impressed by the technical strength, R&D level and advanced equipment of OriginWater, and he immediately expressed the hope for OriginWater as a high-end partner to join the China-Australia Torch Innovation Precinct program. 

So far, OriginWater has conducted international scientific research cooperation with UNSW for more than ten years and has set up an Australia branch of OriginWater R&D Center at UNSW. Their latest cooperation project is an Australian Research Council research fund (ARC) project — a combination of new-generation membrane distillation and solar energy technology.