The 2016 Pujiang Innovation Forum was held at Dongjiao State Guest Hotel in Shanghai from September 23 to 25. The annual forum was inaugurated in 2008 and introduced a country of honor mechanism in 2012, with the countries of honor at the previous four sessions being Germany, Finland, Russia and Israel, respectively, which have significantly promoted S&T exchange and dialogue between China and those countries. The UK was the country of honor at this year’s forum and co-hosted the country of honor forum with China on September 24.

The country of honor forum of this year was themed “Innovation: From Concept to Product”, which presented an in-depth discussion and exchange on the innovation process from concept to product and was geared to encouraging industry-university-research institute collaboration and transformation of research achievements. At the forum, Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation of the UK, and Yin Hejun, Vice Minister of Science and Technology of China, made addresses on behalf of the UK and China, respectively. They both spoke highly of the great achievements of China-UK cooperation in science and technology innovation and expected to work together to build consensus at the 8th meeting of the China-UK Joint Committee on Science and Technology Cooperation and, through the country of honor forum, further share their experience and practices in science and technology innovation.

During the forum, speakers on both sides introduced and shared their practices and experiences on the two sub-themes of “Creation and Management of Creative Ideas” and “Leap from Concept to Product” and had exchanges and discussions with other attendees. A total of over 200 Chinese and British guests attended the country of honor forum.