From 2001 to 2005, universities got 130 trillion yuan for research and development (R&D), half of which came from the co-developing programs with enterprises, Xinhua discovered during a meeting on University Serving the Local Development held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, on Monday.

Minister of Education Zhou Ji urged universities and colleges to bear in mind the importance of serving local development.

Vice Minister of Science and Technology Li Xueyong also addressed the meeting, saying universities and colleges should fully consider the demands of local economic and social development, assist in solving key scientific and technological programs affecting local development, facilitate implementation of technological achievements, and supervise scientific research and personnel training.

According to statistics, 61.7 percent of key national labs and 35.3 percent of national engineering research centers are built in universities and colleges. About 38.7 percent of academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) are working for tertiary education programs. During the 2001-05 period, universities and colleges won 75 National Natural Science Awards, 55.07 percent of the total.

Recent years have seen a boost in technological innovation achievements that will be applicable in the future. Successful examples include computerized laser photo-typesetting electronic publishing system developed by Founder Technology, a company of Founder Group invested by Peking University, a container inspecting system developed by Nuctech Company Limited, a prestigious high-tech company spawned from Tsinghua University, and corn species of 'Nongda108' developed by China Agricultural University.

Forty-four national sci-tech parks in universities and colleges act as important incubators for scientific achievements and hi-tech enterprises. In terms of philosophy and social science research, 90 percent of research resources come from universities.

(hzvt.com by Zhang Yunxing, December 1, 2006)