The Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (SLAB) in Dongguan has signed an agreement with the University of Macau (UM) that will enable students from the territory to perform their thesis research at the facility.
“We very much welcome students from the University of Macau or other universities in Macao to come and work in our campus,” Peking University Professor Chen Dongmin, executive associate director of SLAB, told a delegation of Macao media representatives at the laboratory yesterday.
SLAB has so far received more than 200 students from other parts of China. They carry out their thesis projects there under the joint guidance of the laboratory and their respective universities, says Chen.
Since SLAB was opened in 2018, some 30 scientific research projects have been based at the facility, 16 of which have “already completed their cycle” and received venture capital totalling some 500 million yuan (559 million patacas), according to Chen.
“We focus on preparation and the initial concept of a new product,” he explained. Once that is ready, researchers “will form a start-up company, receive funding and continue to build a company and build the product.”
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Chen added: “So this model has been working well and I think we can work with Macao’s funding agencies and Macao’s industries as well.”
The official was speaking to a 19-strong delegation of Portuguese- and English-language journalists from Macao, on a tour of four cities of the Greater Bay Area.
On Monday, the group visited a number of technology-forward companies before attending a banquet hosted by Dongguan city officials. A visit to Shenzhen is also on the schedule, with inspections of Ubtech Robotics, telecommunications giant Huawei and electronic vehicle manufacturer BYD.
The delegation’s visit is organised by the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Macao SAR.
– With reporting by Gilbert Humphrey/Dongguan
