The Annual Academic Conference of the China-Norway Marine University Consortium Alliance 2022 (hereinafter referred to as “CNMU”) was held online from November 14th to 16th. Vice-Rector Mette Halskov Hansen of University of Oslo , Vice President LIU Yong and Vice President WEI Zhiqiang of OUC attended the meeting.
During the opening ceremony, Vice President LIU remarked that since its inception, CNMU has acted as a platform for extensive and practical cooperation for member universities by organizing academic workshops and joint programs. He welcomed the addition of two new members, namely Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Norwegian University of Life Sciences. As the Chinese secretariat for CNMU, OUC would continue to perform its duties to fully support the alliance’s sound development. He hoped that CNMU could help member universities to pool resources and complement each other in terms of S&T innovation, talent cultivation and industry-wise synergy, with an endeavor to boost full-range cooperation of China and Norway in the filed of marine sciences.
Vice-Rector Hansen pointed out that Norway Marine University Consortium attached great importance to the cooperation with the Chinese partners and wished to maintain the close ties and regular communication in marine sciences, in order to rise to the common challenges posed by the global changes in ocean.
The event featured reports by Academician JIAO Nianzhi (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Academician MAI Kangsen (Chinese Academy of Engineering), Academician Nils Christian Stenseth (Norwegian Academy of Sciences), and Director Siri Granum Carson (NTNU Marine Strategy Research). Under the theme of S&T Innovation, scholars from various fields delivered special reports and shared their insights on the way forward in 8 different themed sub-forums, including Marine Geology and Environmental Evolution, Ocean Dynamics Processes and Climate Changes. The Doctoral candidates from CNMU member universities shared their academic reports on two themes: Marine Biology and Sustainable Utilization, as well as Marine Engineering and Technology.
While attending the China-Norway Marine Industry Forum, Vice President WEI stressed that OUC hoped to work with the business community in industry-university integration, R&D cooperation and commercialization. CNMU could empower member universities and enterprises in both China and Norway to explore new ideas, new mechanisms and new pathways for industry-based cooperation. Qingdao Municipal SME Bureau First-level Researcher LI Zhongqiang, Connect Voit CEO Ms. Greer addressed the forum and Prof. LIU Shuguang from the OUC School of Economics delivered keynote reports. CNMU representatives and China-Norway Future Innovation Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd released a Statement on Joint Cooperation. Business representatives from both countries held discussions about potential cooperation opportunities.
This event marked the first successful annual academic conference since the establishment of CNMU, and enabled all member universities to plan a more detailed road-map on achieving mutual supplementation, and organic synergy among enterprises, universities, research institutes, government authorities, business community and know-how commercialization. Therefore, it would drive more positive collaboration in marine education, marine science study and marine industry development. The Conference, supported by the Ocean Negative Carbon Emissions (ONCE) Program and Shenqing Digital Supply Chain Innovation Center, offered an academic feast of 98 expert reports, 22 doctoral candidate reports, and 10 business-leader reports, attracting over 10,000 online views.
Prof. WANG Min, Secretary-general of the CNMU Chinese Secretariat, Dean of the OUC Haide College and Vice Dean of the OUC College of Marine Life Sciences presided over the opening ceremony. More than 300 scholars and industry experts from 25 member universities, 18 Chinese and foreign partner universities, enterprises and institutions attended the academic conference.
