On April 24th, the China Working Group for Science and Technology was held, for the fifth year, in the International Conference Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation .
The discussion was introduced by Vincenzo De Luca , General Director for the Promotion of the Country System (“Promozione del Sistema Paese”), who reiterated the importance of scientific and technological collaboration between Italy and China.
Scientific Attaches from China took part in the event and presented a report about the most recent developments of S&T cooperation with the major projects carried out in recent years in the areas of big science, fundamental physics and astrophysics.
All major institutions that can count open collaborations with China were present: from the Ministries of Health and the Environment, to Universities such as Naples, Bergamo, Sant’Anna of Pisa, the Polytechnic of Turin and Research Centers (CNR, INFN , ASI), as well as Confidustria and some large companies.
The discussion was pursued with the presentation of some case studies of successful collaboration with China, such as the Joint Laboratory INFN – IHEP presented by Marco Maggiora; the Joint Laboratory on the materials of the DSCTM-CNR and the University of Sichuan introduced by Alessandro Pecora and Marino Lavorgna; the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa and the University of Chongqing presented by Alberto Di Minin; the design centres of the Politecnico of Turin along with the Tsinghua and Shanghai Universities; the collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the sustainable building project at the Tongji University in Shanghai funded by the Ministry of the Environment.
The Italy-China Innovation Week has been mentioned several times during the roundtable both by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Scientific Attache, as an essential tool for the aggregation and acceleration of cooperation with China in the fields of science and technology, since most of the attendees took part in past editions.
The Ministry of Education, Universties and Research- as main promoting institution of the Italy-China internationalization program – and Città della Scienza presented the main results of the 2017 week and announced the prospects for the 2018 edition to be held this year in autumn in Italy.