EIGHT research institutes in Qingdao have been approved to house post-PhD workshops this year. There are 49 post-PhD workshops, training nearly 500 post-PhD holders. The workshops account for 19 percent of those in Shandong Province. Eight are owned by private companies.

    About 210 people are now working on 846 scientific research projects at these facilities. Each creates value about 110 million yuan (US$16.6m).

    The workshops conduct research in such fields as marine sciences, electrical appliances and electronics, machinery, chemical engineering, construction and engineering. Enterprises such as Haier, Hisense, Tsingtao Brewery Group, Qingdao Port have had their own post-PhD workshops.

    Haier has conducted a dozen research projects at its workshop resulting in the development of the 3D refrigerator, variable frequency refrigerator and variable frequency washing machine.

    Qingdao’s PhD workshops have developed 14 national and international industry standards, undertaken 10 State key projects and 18 province- or city-funded projects, creating revenue of about 1.3 billion yuan.

    (Chen Ting, Jia Feng)