On Sept. 23rd, 2016, Minister Wan Gang and UK Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Jo Johnson co-chaired the 8th Meeting of China-UK Joint Commission on Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation and attended the Opening Ceremony of China-UK Innovation Showcase Day.
 
At the 8th Meeting, Wan talked about China’s S&T development and reform and the S&T innovation planning in the 13th Five Years in addition to tasks and measures in aspects of building original innovation capacity, deepening S&T institutional restructuring, optimizing innovation ecosystem, strengthening talent development, and pushing international innovation cooperation. Johnson briefed the audience on the UK’s important moves on S&T input, reform of S&T management organizations, research and innovation, and scientific research assessment system. Delegates of both sides reviewed progress and achievements of S&T innovation cooperation between China and the UK, including cooperation within the framework of China-UK REsearch and Innovation Partnership Fund and local-level featured S&T innovation cooperation between the two countries. Both sides further explored the trend of future cooperation and agreed on cooperation in key areas of S&T innovation, including medicine and health, agricultural technology, food and water security, climate change, energy resources, urbanization, big data, new materials, ICT, space technology and satellite technology application. Both sides stressed the importance of integration to innovation involving science, technology, engineering and cross-disciplinary and cross-field areas including social science, reaching an agreement on jointly making strategies of China-UK S&T cooperation and building together a series of China-UK Joint Research Centers. Participants at this meeting included representatives from Ministry of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Engineering, National Natural Science Foundation, Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology and Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology.

On the same morning, Wan and Johnson delivered keynote speeches at the Opening Ceremony of China-UK Innovation Showcase Day. Minister Wan introduced China’s major S&T achievements in recent years, innovation-driven development strategy and relevant deployment and reviewed the history and progress of China-UK S&T innovation cooperation. He emphasized that in the golden era of China-UK cooperation, the S&T cooperation innovation should take the lead. Minister Johnson said the S&T innovation cooperation between China and UK is becoming increasingly active with great potential of cooperation in the future, hoping both sides will continue to broaden vision and areas of cooperation. During the China-UK Innovation Showcase Day event, the two sides exchanged and explored results and experience of S&T cooperation, holding branch forums involving space, graphene, energy, and creative economy as well as China-UK Innovation and Start-up Competition. All these activities have immensely promoted exchange, matching and cooperation between relevant Chinese and British experts and scholars and business communities.