IN partnership with the Shenzhen government, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the leading national scientific institution in natural sciences and high-tech development in China, will build a research-type technology university in Shenzhen, according to a plan released by the academy at the ongoing China Hi-Tech Fair in Shenzhen on Wednesday.

The new CAS Shenzhen University of Technology, to be located in Guangming Science and Technology Town, will begin to enroll students in September 2021.

According to the blueprint, the university, though small in size, will be built into a top-level independent university based on the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technologies (SIAT) of CAS.

In October, the Guangdong Provincial Education Department approved including the CAS Shenzhen University of Technology in the province’s 13th Five-Year Program for university development.

“The university will focus on cultivating talents in six disciplines — biomedicine, synthetic biology, brain science, biopharmacy, robotics and AI, and advanced electronic materials,”  said Fan Jianping, president of SIAT and head of the preparatory office for the new university.

The university will also highlight the convergence of education, technology and industry, mechanism innovation, and cooperation with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the rest of the world, according to Fan.

The university will create a trinity operation mode by integrating schools, research institutes and colleges, which will play their respective roles in education, research and overall personality development.

The country’s supreme scientific advisory body, CAS has served as the major national strategic research force since its founding in 1949 and has left its deep footprints in Chinese science and technology and the overall development of China’s national innovation system.

Jointly established by CAS and the Shenzhen government in 2006, SIAT is the first R&D entity in China specializing in modernized manufacturing and independent innovation with integrated technologies as its disciplinary orientation.

Among the 3,000 employees at SIAT, 600 are professionals returning from overseas, including 218 doctorate tutors. The researches of the institute cover biomedicine engineering, brain science, synthetic biology and IT.

Over 360 postdoctoral students and 7,000 postgraduate students from 15 countries and regions have graduated from the institute. It has established exchanges and cooperation with research institutes and universities in 34 countries and regions.

(Han Ximin)