On Feb.10, the China-Australia industrial cooperation roundtable conference was held in the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). Yin Hejun, Deputy Minister of MOST, Zhang Zhihong, Director of the Torch Center, Ian Jacobs, President of University of New South Wales (UNSW), Dr Li Suoding, chief expert of OriginWater R&D Center, and other leaders attended the conference. It is reported that, last Aug., OriginWater entered the first torch innovation precinct outside China -- Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW, Australia. OriginWater becomes the first Zhongguancun Science Park enterprise that has entered this torch innovation precinct and, with its cooperation with UNSW as an excellent case in the torch project, it shared its experience at this conference. 

China-Australia industrial cooperation roundtable conference

Deputy Minister Yin Hejun said in his speech that the Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW was a good example of China-Australia science and technology cooperation, and MOST would fully support the cooperation program and timely provide all-around help and guidance for entered enterprises. 

Yin Hejun, Deputy Minister of MOST, gives a speech

Zhang Zhihong, Director of the Torch Center, said that serving enterprises’ innovation and supporting enterprises’ international cooperation is an important task for the Torch Center. The first six projects of the Torch Innovation Precinct got full support from entered enterprises. In view of last-year’s cooperation content and effects, this project is of great significance to promoting cooperation between Chinese enterprises and foreign universities. 

The UNSW President Ian Jacobs said that cooperation with enterprises had always been the core work of the university, and UNSW had been at a world leading R&D level in the field of new material and environmental protection. In view of successful past cooperation, they were currently considering the development of the second-phase project. 

In the subsequent case-sharing, Dr Li Suoding, chief expert of OriginWater’s R&D Center, introduced in detail the cooperation between the two sides from several aspects -- OriginWater’s general situation, the Torch Innovation Precinct cooperation process and project progress, and summarized the international cooperation model of “introduction - digestion & absorption - secondary innovation - localization” and “joint R&D - innovation & upgrading”. 

Dr Li said, the cooperation research at present based on Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW would lay a foundation for OriginWater’s international R&D center in the future, and was conducive to OriginWater’s cultivation of international talents and gradually building overseas R&D teams. In the future, OriginWater will carry on with the UNSW-based Torch Innovation Precinct cooperation project research, and finally establish OriginWater’s international R&D center. 

Dr Li Suoding case sharing

Since 2009, OriginWater has, in cooperation with organizations such as UNSW, successfully applied for three ARC Linkage Projects, which involve the research and application of membrane technology in sewage treatment, application research of membrane technology in underground water treatment and purification, and research on the combination of membrane technology and solar energy technology. With these projects, OriginWater has become UNSW’s first industrial partner that has undertaken Australian government’s important research projects three times in a row.

With the Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW, a new platform for China-Australia Sci Tech industrial cooperation, the cooperation between OriginWater and UNSW has formally entered a new stage. The two sides are joining hands to build a world-class water research center, which becomes an excellent case in the MOST torch project.