The Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission have recently officially informed USST that a total number of 20 oversea expert projects applied by USST teachers early this year were approved, with the total number of approved projects climbing to its new height, the approval rate reaching 45%, and the funding amount totaling 3.99 million RMB. The 20 projects covered various disciplines such as design, optoelectronics, energy, machinery, health and environment.
The National Oversea Expert Project and Shanghai Oversea Expert Project are led and promoted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission respectively, aiming to support the introduction of foreign strategic scientific and technological talents, scientific and technological leading talents and innovation teams that promote the key core technologies in the fields of world's science and technology frontier, the main battlefield of the economy and the major needs of the country and the people's life and health. These projects focus on supporting the National Key R&D Program and the National Natural Science Foundation and other national science and technology programs, as well as the construction of national science and technology innovation bases and research platforms, and will give key supports to the oversea experts' needs for the above-mentioned projects being executed. The approved projects will fund oversea experts to conduct scientific research, technical consultation, product development, discipline construction, academic exchange, transformation of R&D achievements, management services and other activities within China.
Since 2012, USST has been applying for various oversea expert projects and has been successfully approved for 53 projects during the last 10 years, with the cooperation of oversea experts and scholars who have internationally recognized influence in a certain discipline or professional field. The implementation of these projects will further strengthen the exchange and cooperation between USST and high-ranking foreign universities, which will strongly promote the internationalization of USST and effectively improve USST international academic reputations.
Despite the impact of the global epidemic, the International Affairs Office of USST still carefully organized all schools on the campus to carry out the application, and cooperated with schools to conduct offline promotion and publicity activities to explain policies, share experiences and give guidance, so as to improve teachers' enthusiasm to apply and improve the quality of project application material. Among the approved projects, School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering and School of Environment and Architecture were top 3 most project-awarded schools. College of Communication and Art Design, which participated in the application for the first time, also honorably got three projects approved.
The number of approved oversea expert projects reaching highest in USST history shows that USST attaches great importance to international cooperation and innovation in science and technology, and strengthens the construction of international high-end talents, which will further promote the improvement of international cooperation level of each school on the campus.
