Covestro, a world-leading supplier of high-tech polymer materials based in Germany, and Tongji University held the 2017 Innovation Day and the inauguration ceremony of Covestro-Tongji Innovation Academy on Wednesday, launching their comprehensive strategic partnership focusing on the transportation and construction fields.

From left to right: Peter Rothen, Germany’s consul general in Shanghai; Dr. Markus Steilemann, board member for innovation and chief commercial officer of Covestro; Professor Wu Jiang, executive vice-president of Tongji University; Dr. Liu Yan, Party chief of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Committee at the inauguration ceremony of the Covestro-Tongji Innovation Academy. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A series of seminars under the theme of Sustainable Mobility took place during the Innovation Day, including lectures from experts and interactions among Tongji University, industry players and Covestro customers.

"Tongji University, together with Covestro, is committed to supporting China's transformation into an innovation-driven economy. Our long history of collaboration has helped to drive forward China's indigenous innovation," said Wu Jiang, executive vice-president of Tongji University.

"The newly established Innovation Academy and the Innovation Day together form an enhanced incubator aimed at fostering research projects in the transportation and construction fields, industrializing new material technologies and encouraging entrepreneurial ability among students and industry players."

"Tongji University is one of our key partners in China. By intensifying our cooperation, we are striving to turn technology innovation outcomes into market value," added Markus Steilemann, board member for innovation and chief commercial officer of Covestro.

"The new Innovation Academy, with its focus on the construction and transportation industries, is to become a powerhouse, accelerating the development and commercialization of new technologies."

Peter Rothen, Germany's consul general in Shanghai, said: "Germany wants to continue to be a strong partner with China in the field of innovation. Germany wants to stay open to cooperation with China in the most advanced high-tech areas as we – the German government and in particular our German companies – have proven time and again, also by transferring more and more research and development capacities to China.

"But in order to be able to do so, we also need to lift unnecessary restrictions for foreign companies, we need to get quickly to a truly level playing field between foreign and local companies."

With the collaborative efforts from Covestro and Tongji University, the Innovation Day will serve as an open innovation platform, embracing partners across industry value chains to exchange ideas and incubate collaboration, in response to challenges that affect China to a considerable degree, for example, fast-paced urbanization.

Seminars and panel discussions at the 2017 Innovation Day focused on the transportation sector, including the development trends in electric cars and internet transportation.

The Innovation Academy is an expansion of the first five-year partnership of the Covestro-Tongji Eco-Construction & Material Academy collaboration, operating under the new name and mechanism. The Academy aims to explore and promote innovative industry-academia cooperation that focuses on industrializing innovation outcomes in the areas of transportation and construction.

"In recent years, Shanghai has been spearheading efforts to develop itself into an innovation-driven metropolis and a major global entrepreneurial hub," said Liu Yan, Party chief of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Committee.

"The Covestro-Tongji Innovation Academy itself is a very creative industry-academia cooperation model that will play a pivotal role in driving China's innovation eco-system through education, research projects and talent development."