On March 30th, the Joint R&D Centre for Biological Enzyme at HNUST was founded, and a Strategic Cooperation Frame Agreement was signed by HNUST and Hunan Lerkam Biology Corp., Ltd. to promote cooperation and development among universities, local governments, and enterprises. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Wu Guangwen, County Magistrate and Associate Secretary of Yueyang County, Yao Zhengda, Management Committee Secretary of Yueyang County High-tech Industrial Park, Li Guogao, Chairman and General Manager of Hunan Lerkam Biology Corp., Ltd., and directors of the local governments. Liu Youjin, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of HNUST, Zhao Qiancheng, Vice President of HNUST, and the main directors of the School of Life and Health Science were also present. The ceremony was presided over by Zhao Qiancheng.

In his opening remarks, Liu Youjin said: “All three parties have done an excellent job in preparation, paid sufficient attention to the work, and taken a flexible approach towards collaboration. I believe this cooperation has a positive demonstration effect and promising prospect.” He expressed his delight and proposed three suggestions for future cooperation. Firstly, the parties should leverage each other’s strengths to maximize the benefits.Secondly, they should improve the working mechanism inordertopromotebetter integration between the universityandthelocalgovernment. Lastly, they should explore more fields of cooperation, and create combined brands of HNUST and the enterprise as models.

Wu Guangwen congratulated the establishment of the Joint R&D Centre and emphasized its alignment with thenationalpolicyofdeveloping the biologicaleconomy. He further added that the Centre would facilitatejoint discoveries inthefieldof biological medicine.

Li Guogao introduced the future direction of the company and research groups, highlighting the importance of innovation and talented professionals. He expressed his expectations for a skilled R&D team with competitive patents. Furthermore, he wishes that the new cooperation model could achieve mutual progress with the support of the Yueyang County government.

During the ceremony, Li Guogao and Wang Haihua, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School signed the agreement. The Centre was jointly inaugurated by Liu Youjin, Wu Guangwen, Li Guogao and Wang Haihua.

(Translated by LING Qian and HUANG Nan)