The Minister of Education, University and Research of the Italian Republic, Valeria Fedeli, and the Minister of Science and Technology of the People‘s Republic of China, Wan Gang, met on November 13th, 2017 in Beijing on the occasion of the eigth edition of the China-Italy Innovation Cooperation Week.

The Ministers acknowledged the strategic role played by science, technology and innovation for the economic and social progress of society, and exchanged views on their respective priorities in these fields.

The Ministers welcomed the organization of the China-Italy Innovation Cooperation Week. It has become a fundamental and well established platform to boost ongoing bilateral initiatives and promote public-private and business-to-business interactions on research and innovation. They acknowledged the ample participation of Italian and Chinese representatives of the academic, research and business communities, and the definition of new bilateral cooperation agreements. Ministers Valeria Fedeli and Wan Gang agreed to attend the inauguration of the next edition of the Italy-China Innovation Cooperation Week, to be held in Italy, in Autumn 2018.

Considering the positive implementation of joint laboratories, research projects and programs in several fields of strategic importance for both countries (i.e. high energy and astroparticle physics, biotechnology and medicine, advanced materials, environment, space and astronomy), the Ministers confirmed their commitment to promote the expansion of the bilateral activities in new sectors, such as large scale research infrastructures, smart manufacturing and robotic.

In the framework of the Agreement between the Government of the Italian Republic and the Government of the People’s Republic of China for the scientific and technological Cooperation signed in Beijing in 1998, with a view to identify future common activities and projects, during the meeting of the Joint Commission for Science and Technology which was held on 13th November 2017 in Beijing it was agreed to proceed with the selection of joint projects to be financed under the next Executive Programme for scientific and technological cooperation for the years 2019-2021.
The Ministers acknowledge the successful organization of the China-Italy Innovation and Entrepreneurship competition in Italy and China, the Italian technological clusters’ road show in China, and the high level visits of Chinese outstanding representatives of the scientific and technological districts to Italy. These missions have demonstrated to be an important tool to create a direct link between the research institutions, universities and private companies of both countries and to exchange information on the advantages and economic returns of investments in research and development activities.

The Ministers in order to promote entrepreneurship in high-tech and advanced fields acknowledge the joint initiatives dedicated to start-ups and maker spaces from Chinese and Italian sides in order to provide services of entrepreneurship and innovation, international technology transfer, venture capitals, matchmaking between offer and request of technology. The two Ministers give full support to the China-Italy Technology Transfer Center to further promote the bilateral activities on technology transfer.

The Ministers welcomed the Moon-Maping joint research project between the Italian and Chinese university students, which shows the great friendship and team spirit of the young people and the mutual interets on space cooperation.

Finally the Ministers expressed their appreciation for the activities within the framework of the Joint Strategic Plan for Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation between Italy and China towards 2020 and strongly endorse the full implementation of the common goals.