Yuki Lei in Dongguan
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory Executive Associate Director Chen Dongmin told reporters yesterday that his laboratory has inked an umbrella agreement with the University of Macau (UM), in which UM students can perform their research thesis there as a carrier, enabling “the individual faculty level to work on the specific arrangement”.
According to Chen, the laboratory consists of four core sections, namely the Frontier Research Centre, Public Technology Platform and Large-scale Scientific Facilities, Model Factory for Innovation, and South Bay Interdisciplinary Science Centre.
When asked by a reporter about how the laboratory allocates its funding to attract young scientists to conduct research there, Chen said that the laboratory has divided the financial support for two types of research – applied research and technology commercialisation, adding that scientists, in terms of the former, explore new ideas that could lead to a future application, while scientists, in the phase of the latter, have to reach the stage where venture capital would make the investment, from which point they start developing the product.
Chen made the remarks after a guided tour for Macau’s Chinese-, English- and Portuguese-language media delegation at the laboratory.
As an important part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Comprehensive National Science Centre, according to Chen’s briefing, Dongguan’s Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory focuses on the major scientific and technological needs of national strategy and regional development, involving the areas of new materials, electronic information, high-end equipment manufacturing, medical health, new energy and other fields to carry out source innovation, creating a major source of original innovation, high ground for pilot validation and achievement transformation, a Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau cooperative innovation community, and a comprehensive pilot zone for institutional innovation.
The visit by the delegation of 14 Chinese-, English- and Portuguese-language media organisations to four Guangdong cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) was on the third day of the itinerary in Dongguan after travelling to Guangzhou and Shaoguan on Sunday and Monday respectively.
Dongguan lies some 95 kilometres northeast of Macau.
Dongguan, a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong province, is an important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) that borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, Shenzhen to the south, and the Pearl River to the west. The city boasts some 2,000 industrial enterprises, with its added value of high-tech and advanced manufacturing industries accounting for 37.8 percent and 45.9 percent respectively, according to official statistics. The city currently ranks third in the Chinese mainland in terms of its urban population and youth population attractiveness, with its total population standing at 14 million and having an average age of just 33.4 years, according to Dongguan Municipality Deputy Mayor Xing Wenju who delivered a welcome speech during yesterday’s dinner at Dongguan Kande International Hotel.
In addition to the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory – a provincial laboratory mainly focusing on applied and commercialisation research, yesterday’s visit to Dongguan also included the China Spallation Neutron Source – a proposed accelerator-based neutron source.
According to the guided tour by China Spallation Neutron Source Scientist Group Leader Tong Xin, the facility will be open for registered users for free once the proposal passes the respective committee’s review.
The four-day delegation trip, organised by the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), is headed by Macau-based Portuguese journalist José Carlos Matias, director of Macau Business magazine, with Counsellor of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macau SAR Gao Yuan as the delegation’s consultant. The delegation members have praised Gao for the efficient organisation of the highly informative trip.
The delegation will conclude its four-day GBA tour today in Shenzhen, where they will visit the “Great Tides Surge Along the Pearl River” Exhibition as well as the high-profile BYD and Huawei companies.
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory Executive Associate Director Chen Dongmin talks to reporters after yesterday’s guided tour of the facility in Dongguan for Macau’s Chinese-, English- and Portuguese-language media delegation.
– Photos: Yuki Lei
Members of the delegation, including Counsellor of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC in the MSAR Gao Yuan (right) and delegation head José Carlos Matias (centre), attend a briefing at the China Spallation Neutron Source in Dongguan yesterday.
