BU Research Blog

Over the last few months, the Global Engagement Hub has organized a series of online research workshops with two priority SIA institutions in China, Northeastern University and Zhejiang University. BU has a longstanding relationship with both institutions.

In 2019, Bournemouth University launched a joint research centre of advanced materials with Northeastern University (NEU) in Shenyang China. The research centre focuses on creating new materials with large-scale applications in industrial manufacturing and healthcare. The research centre has four unique research themes; energy materials, healthcare, 2D materials technology and materials for sustainable applications that closely align to two strategic investment areas: Sustainability, Low Carbon Technology and Material Science, and Medical Science. The research centre is home to a number of ongoing research collaborations, including the work of a number of PhD students. The centre has received funding from the Chinese government for NEU PhD students to spend time at BU.

BU academics collaborated with colleagues from NEU in a three-day virtual workshop in December 2020 that focussed on the Sustainability and Low Carbon Technology and Medical Science SIAs. This workshop was a chance for early career researchers as well as established researchers to develop important networks with colleagues in China. The three-day event included presentations from researchers and PhD students at both universities. Following on from the event, the Global Engagement Hub together with Dr Amor Abdelkader, the lead academic of the partnership, are currently organising smaller meetings for workshop attendees to facilitate collaboration in the areas of materials science, medical imaging and environmental science.

In January 2021, BU hosted another virtual workshop, this time in collaboration with Zhejiang University (ZJU) to explore research and expertise aligned with BU’s strategic investment areas Animation, Simulation and Visualisation and its application to Medical Science. The two organisations have a long-standing history of research collaboration through the National Centre for Computer Animation, NCCA. Colleagues from BU and ZJU have published a range of papers together and collaborated on funding bid submissions.

Another link that BU has with ZJU is through the UK-China Health and Economy Partnership, which is a novel knowledge transfer partnership promoting long-term collaboration between leading academic institutions in China including ZJU and the United Kingdom. The aim of this project is to generate new expertise and techniques in health economics.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis and Dr Daisy Fan in the BU Business School also have long-standing collaboration with Dr Jiaying Lu at the ZJU School of Management in the area of senior living and senior travel experience as well as work on social and economic sustainability in tourism.

If you have any links to these strategic partner universities or would like to collaborate with colleagues at these institutions, please email GlobalBU@bournemouth.ac.uk.