On November 22, 2018, the Oxford-Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research (OSCAR) celebrated its grand opening at the Suzhou Industrial Park in Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province.
Oxford University President Louise Richardson and Jiangsu Provincial Chinese Communist Party Committee Standing Committee member and the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee head, Zhou Naixiang, jointly unveiled OSCAR.
According to OSCAR’s website, “The Oxford-Suzhou Center for Advanced Research (OSCAR) will be the University of Oxford’s first overseas centre for physical science and engineering research, primarily expanding on activities from across the University’s Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Divisions.”
Oxford scholars in the fields of engineering, physics, chemistry, and material science will lead the initial research programs. The applications will cover the research range from health information, tissue engineering, biomedical imaging, and environmental remediation, to advanced materials and electronic devices.
So far twelve Oxford scholars will be the lead principal investigators (PIs) and establish research projects. PIs will each spend two months every year at OSCAR to supervise the research.
The initial contact between Suzhou and Oxford University started in 2012. Cui Zhanfeng, the first Chinese tenured professor in the history of Oxford University, also the first dean of OSCAR, originally proposed the cooperation. The two parties signed a collaboration agreement in December 2016.
Source: The Paper, November 23, 2018
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