On 15 April, a working meeting was held by the Advisory Board of Network for International Cooperation on Technology Commercialization (NICTC), the network which aims to foster international cooperation in the field of technology transfer.
Promoted by, among others, the International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) and the China Technology Exchange (CTEX), the NICTC brings together 103 international players including incubators, accelerators, trade associations, innovation centres, research institutes and departments of prestigious universities (e.g. the universities of Peking, Tsinghua, Cambridge, Federico II, Algarve).
The working meeting focused on the organisation of the 2021 edition of the Zhongguancun Forum to be held in October in Beijing in one of China’s main high-tech industrial development zones. Now in its thirteenth edition, the Zhongguancun Forum is a programme dedicated to cooperation and entrepreneurial development for research centres, companies and innovative start-ups interested in internationalisation processes.
Another topic addressed during the meeting was the selection of the “100 Best Industrial Innovations for International Technology Transfer”, which will be shared at the Zhongguancun Forum.
The NICTC Advisory Board is presided by Tony Raven, President of Cambridge Entreprise, (the commercialization arm of the prestigious University of Cambridge).
Board members are recognised scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs from Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. The Italian members are Prof. Plinio Innocenzi, Professor of Materials Science and Technology at the University of Sassari and former Scientific Attaché at the Italian Embassy in China, Prof. Luigi Nicolais, President of Materias and former Italian Minister for Reform and Innovation in the Public Administration, and Vincenzo Lipardi, CEO of SPICI.
International members are: John Zhang, Secretary General of the International Technology Transfer Network; Prof. Carl A. Rust, Vice President for International Cooperation at the Georgia Institute of Technology (one of the top research universities in the US); Bankole Oloruntoba, President of the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center and Consul of Finland to Lagos; Vijay Kant Mishra, Chairman of the India China Technology Transfer Center (ICTTC); Prof. Zhang Lei, World Trade Organization Chair and Dean of the Trade Negotiation School and WTO Chair Institute-China at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics (SUIBE); Stella Liu, President of the US China Innovation Alliance (UCIA); Yin Hang, President of the German Institute of Innovation and Technology; Rina Neoh, General Representative of ITTN Kuala Lumpur Office, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ficus Venture Capital; Nedeljko Milosavljevic, Advisor on Technology Transfer at the European Commission, former Vice President of the Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP) and Technology Transfer Office Director of the University of Belgrade; and Igor Rozhdestvenskii, Founder of the Association of Brokers of Innovations and Technologies (ABIT).
Several special guests also participated in the meeting, including representatives from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, from Dongshin University in South Korea, from Chinese incubator TusStar, as well as representatives from Finland.
