Universities in Xiong'an New Area, North China's Hebei province will coordinate for innovative and high-quality development so that they can better contribute to the new economic zone's high-quality construction and high-level management.

As the first universities that have set up campuses in Xiong'an, four universities from Beijing jointly founded a collaborative innovation alliance on Saturday (September 23), which will explore an open mechanism for teaching and research and an innovative mode for talent training among universities, according to a report by Hebei Daily.

The four universities are Beijing Jiaotong University, the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Beijing Forestry University. The information about their transfer from Beijing to Xiong'an was disclosed last year.

Except for the four schools, 9 provincially-administrated universities in Hebei, 12 related companies and 9 scientific research institutions are also member units of the alliance, including the Hebei University of Technology, HBIS Group Co - one of the country's leading iron and steel manufacturers that's based in Hebei, and the 13th Research Institute of China Electronic Technology Group Co.

The number of its members will expand further in the future.

According to Yu Zujun, president of Beijing Jiaotong University who is also the first chairman of the alliance, the alliance was founded after nearly half a year's preparation, and it has passed a regulation under which the alliance will operate and has made a work plan for the near future.

?