Tsinghua signs major deal during UK visit
Tsinghua University signed a major deal on October 21 during the State Visit to Britain by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Signed in London, the agreement brings together Tsinghua, BRE, the British-based Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Chinese property development company Evergrande, in a collaborative research agreement on sustainable urbanisation.
Direct Result of the UK-China Trade Summit
It was one of seven exclusive UK-China collaboration agreements signed as part of the UK-China business summit held during the state visit.
Jo Johnson, Britain's Minister of State for Universities and Science met Professor Chen Xu, Chairperson of Tsinghua University Council, Dr Peter Bonfield, Chief Executive of BRE and Mr. Xiao En, Executive Vice President of Evergrande Real Estate Group Limited.
Jo Johnson said 'China is one of our most important international partners and at the last UK-China trade summit our Governments agreed to boost collaboration on science and technology. This project is a direct result of that commitment, and I look forward to seeing it progress.'
Sustainable Urbanisation Programs for Hainan Province
The collaborative research agreement will focus on accelerating China’s sustainable urbanisation and the national green building programs.
It will include the development of a number of sustainable development projects in China, including a pilot sustainable city demonstration in Danzhou and a green building demonstration zone on Haihua Island in Hainan province.
More Collaborative Projects developed in other areas
This signing program will also improve processes for planning, design, procurement, construction and management, R & D on new green materials and low carbon products and technologies, and a program of post occupancy evaluation studies.
Following a visit to the London headquarters of BRE in 2011 by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, a number of active collaborative projects between China and the UK were launched.
Cooperation among Tsinghua and its two partners
Cooperation between Tsinghua and Evergrande led to the establishment of the Tsinghua’s Evergrande Research Institute on April 8th, 2013.
Although Tsinghua established its own standards for green buildings in 2008 when Beijing hosted the Olympic Games, an agreement was signed one year ago, with the BRE Trust on related green standards research, and the development of innovation parks for the development of the area.
That resulted in the launch on June 26, 2015 of a building project for an innovation park in Gui’an, Guizhou Province.
BRE
A world-leading building science center and an authority on all aspects of the built environment.It is owned by the BRE Trust, a registered charity, which funds research and education to advance knowledge of the built environment with a commitment to building a better world together.
Evergrande
A China-based conglomerate specializing in residential building, cultural tourism, FMCG, health industry and sport industry. Over 400 large projects have been developed by Evergrande in over 170 major cities across China. It also owns an architectural engineering company with special Chinese qualifications.
(From Tsinghua University Office of Global Communications and Outreach)
