Building innovation links between the UK & China

China Tomorrow – Building Innovation Links Between the North West of England & China
18th March 2010 Time: 09:00-16:30
DARESBURY SCIENCE & INNOVATION CAMPUS

PROGRAMME

Organised by:

Supported by:

Programme

09:00 – 09:30        Registration & coffee

09.30 – 09.45        Welcome Address Mr Mark Atherton, Director of Environment and Energy, Northwest Regional Development Agency

09:45 – 10:00        Chair’s Introduction Dr Nigel Kerby, Managing Director, Mylnefield Research Services Ltd; and Board Member of CBBC

10:00 – 11:45         An overview of opportunities for innovation & technology exchange in the environmental technologies &
                             sustainable development sectors in China

                             Prof Li Guangming, Vice Dean, College of Environmental Science & Engineering, Tongji University; & Vice Director,
                              Shanghai World EXPO 2010 Science and Technology Promotion Centre, Science & Technology Commission
                             of Shanghai Municipality

                             - Technological Innovation for Low Carbon at World Expo Shanghai 2010

                             Prof Liu Lijian, Department of Polymer Science, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University

                             - Energy Saving Processes for Biobased Chemicals and Fuel

                             Prof Zhu Dajian, Professor & Director, Institute of Sustainable Development and Governance, Department of Public
                              Policy and Management, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University

                             - 2010 World Expo and Sustainable Cities in China: Challenges, Approaches and Policies

Summary of session

11:45 -   12:30      The North West of England – Environmental Technologies & Sustainable Development Showcase

                             Dr Hifzi Naji, Research & Development Manager, Envirolink Northwest

                             Dr Mark Bacon, Associate Director for Enterprise and Business Partnerships,
                             University of Lancaster, Environment Centre 

12:30 – 13:30        Lunch and networking

13:30 – 14:00        Innovation, Commercialisation and Funding: the Chinese Model

                             Dr Yu Xiong, Vice Chairman, China Innovation and Development Association UK

14:00 – 14:30         IPR considerations

                             Mr John McMuldroch, Partner, Glaisyers Solicitors LLP

14:30 – 15:00        Best practice / dos & don’ts for collaborative working and the cross-cultural issues of collaboration

                             Mr Vince Cunningham, China Business Adviser, China-Britain Business Council

15:00 – 15:30        Company Case Study

                             Technology for the mechanical heat treatment of commercial and industrial waste to produce biomass fuel
                             suitable for electricity production

                             Mr Steve Whatmore, Managing Director, Orchid Environmental Ltd

15:30 – 15:45        UKTI support for next steps

                             Mrs Philomena Chen, Head of Asia Pacific, UK Trade & Investment North West

15:45 – 16:00        The Northwest at Shanghai Expo

                             Philip D Southward MBA, Director of Operations - Liverpool World Expo Pavilion

16:00 – 16:30        Event Round-up - Discussion / Q&A session

Please note this programme is subject to change.

This event is part of the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills Global Partnership Programme.

Speaker Information

Mark Atherton, Director of Environment and Energy, Northwest Regional Development Agency

Mark joined the Northwest Regional Development Agency in 2002 and has held several roles including: Head of Environment; Head of Sustainable Development and Head of Environment & Climate Change.
His main responsibility as Director of Energy and Environment is to provide innovative and strategic leadership to the Agency’s work on energy and environment, linked to the implementation and future development of the North West Regional Economic Strategy. Mark manages four Teams working on: Energy & Environmental Technologies; Climate Change; Sustainable Consumption & Production and Environment Quality.

Mark has lead responsibility for several actions within the NW Regional Economic Strategy: 

• Undertake a cluster programme for Energy and Environmental Technologies;
• Improving business resource efficiency and waste minimisation;
• Developing and implementing an Energy Strategy and Climate Change Action Plan;
• Developing new uses for brownfield land;
• Creating and managing regional parks;
• Embedding corporate responsibility in NW businesses;
• Maximising the economic benefits of the region’s rich environmental assets;
• Embedding sustainable development into the NWDA’s own policies and practices.

Mark chairs the Northwest Climate Change Partnership and Northwest SCP Partnership and sits on the Boards of Enworks, Business Link Environment & Efficiency Board; Northwest Waste Committee, NISP Programme Management Board; Mersey Basin Campaign, and NW River Basin District Liaison Board. 

Mark holds a B.Sc. Honours degree in Combined Sciences (Ecology/Organic Chemistry) and a Master's Degree in Applied Hydrobiology from Cardiff University together with several management qualifications.  Mark's career has mostly been spent in environmental science and management.  Prior to joining the NWDA, Mark was Area Fisheries, Ecology and Recreation Manager for the Environment Agency’s Central Area, Northwest Region. 

Dr Nigel Kerby, Managing Director, Mylnefield Research Services Ltd; and Board Member, China-Britain Business Council

Dr Kerby graduated from the University of Leeds in 1975 with a BSc in Botany and in 1979 with a PhD.

During his academic career he worked with Sir William Stewart in Dundee on nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria and was a lecturer in microbiology at the University of Dundee.  Since 1992 he has been the Managing Director of Mylnefield Research Services Ltd. (MRS), protecting and commercialising the intellectual assets and resources of the Scottish Crop Research Institute. 

He has established long-term partnerships with leading international companies, sustaining globally important research in plant breeding, pathology, physiology, and analytical chemistry.  The products of MRS are widely consumed in the UK and are market leaders in their categories; the sale of these products makes a significant contribution to the UK economy. 

MRS has made charitable donations of £1.88 million since 2000 to support scientific research, education and the public understanding of science.  Nigel Kerby is a frequent visitor to China with commercial agricultural, food and environmental interests.  He is a Board member of the China Britain Business Council and chairs their Innovation and Technology Forum.  Recently, he joined the Board of Directors of a Chinese cooperative joint venture that is growing and marketing fruit produced in China.

Prof Li Guangming, Vice Dean, College of Environmental Science & Engineering, Tongji University; & Vice Director, Shanghai World EXPO 2010 Science and Technology Promotion Centre, Science & Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality

Prof Li’s PhD is in Organic Chemical Engineering and he is a Professor in environmental science.

The main interests for his research are in pollution prevention and control in the process industries and he has considerable expertise in waste water treatment and waste electronics management and reclamation technology.

Prof Li also holds an honorary professorship at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

Prof Liu Lijian, Department of Polymer Science, College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University

Prof Liu has a degree in Chemistry, a Masters in Organic Chemistry and a PhD in Applied Chemistry.

Major areas of interest are artificial biodegradable and biomedical polymers, microwave-assisted polymerization, immobilized enzymes and asymmetric synthesis.

Prof Liu is Professor in Chemistry at Wuhan University and has been a Visiting Scholar at the Centre de Recherche sur les Biopolymères Artificiels, CNRS, France.

Other positions include   Chairman of the Polymer Chemistry Committee, Hubei Branch of Chinese Chemical Society; and Director of the Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of the Ministry of Education at Wuhan University.

Prof Zhu Dajian, Professor & Director, Institute of Sustainable Development and Governance, Department of Public Policy and Management, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University

Dr Zhu is professor of the School of Economics & Management, Director of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Governance, Head of the Department of Public Policy and Management at Tongji University in Shanghai. He was a senior research scholar at Harvard University in 2004-2005 and a visiting research fellow at Melbourne University in 1994-1995.

His research interests include urban development strategy, sustainable development and green economy, sustainable business and CSR etc. He haspublished six books and more than 200 papers and articles in his research fields.

He is one of the main pioneers in China who introduced and developed the concept of circular economy and green economy on the base of ecological economics. In recent years he has been invited to speak about circular economy and sustainable urbanization for China at academic institutes such as Harvard University, Yale University, London University's Imperial College, Tokyo University, Lausanne University and World Bank Institute, UNEP at Bangkok, etc.

He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals such as Ecological Economics, Environmental Policy and Governance and International Journal of Public Management.

He is an environmental advisor for Shanghai 2010 Expo, a special policy advisor for Shanghai Municipal Government, a member of the Experts Commission on Sustainable Development & Resource and Environment under the Chinese Construction Ministry, and a member of the Social Science Commission under the Chinese Education Ministry.

Also, he is one of advisor experts of UNEP global green new deal report and one of advisory experts of Davos World Resource Forum. He has been involved in several important research projects on theory and policy of sustainable urbanization, which are supported by the Chinese government and international organisations such as UNDP, UNEP, WB，ADB etc.           

Dr Hifzi Naji, Research & Development Manager, Envirolink Northwest

Dr Hifzi Naji is a senior manager at Envirolink northwest responsible for managing the research and development programme with a focus on recycling and waste, promoting increased innovation between companies and universities in the North West region.

Dr Mark Bacon, Associate Director for Enterprise and Business Partnerships, University of Lancaster, Environment Centre

Mark Bacon is Director of Enterprise & Business Partnerships and an Associate Director of Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) at Lancaster University.  Mark takes responsibility for a range of knowledge exchange programmes between LEC and the business community, having developed a successful business case to establish the first ever environmental technology incubator in the UK, based at Lancaster University. 

Following a first degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD in Plant Biochemistry, Mark has undertaken a range of collaborations with industry, supported by UK Research Councils, the European Union and Government departments. Mark co-authored the successful bid for Lancaster to host one of 4 UK-China Bridge Programmes, funded to exploit established research collaborations with China for the benefit of UK business.

Mark is a board director of Lancaster University Business Enterprises Limited, the lead of the regional academic network for the environmental technologies and services sector and a company director of Envirolink Northwest Ltd.  Working to turn high quality research into real world solutions in collaboration with industry was recognised by HM The Queen in 2010, via the award of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education to Lancaster University.

Dr Yu Xiong, Vice Chairman, China Innovation and Development Association UK

Dr. Yu Xiong is working towards closer Science and Technology cooperation between China and UK. He is Vice Chair of the China Innovation and Development Association, which is dedicated to helping the Chinese government to development projects with the UK.  His contributions have won him a Chinese Government Award, presented by the former Chinese Ambassador, Madam Fu Ying. He is a committee member of the Chongqing Youth Federation and a University Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. Recently he became the Principal Investigator of a British Academy project, which concentrates on the effects of Closed Loop Supply Chain Cooperation in both China and UK.

Mr John McMuldroch, Partner, Glaisyers Solicitors LLP

John joined Glaisyers in 2008. He qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 1982 and in Scotland in 2006. He also holds an MBA degree.

John has been in Partnership since 1996. Prior to that, he worked as a senior lawyer in local government and industry. John specialises in general Corporate/Commercial work including Intellectual Property acting for a wide range of clients in the UK and overseas (particularly China).

Mr Vince Cunningham, China Business Adviser, China-Britain Business Council

A Chartered Chemical Engineer with an MBA, Vince has delivered factories in the UK, North America and South-East Asia.  In 2002-2006 Vince led projects to deliver unique UK technology, which could make commercial grade chipboard from waste materials, into several Chinese Provinces.

His business operations in China have taken Vince from Shanghai to Wuhan, from Guangzhou to Harbin.  He has worked extensively with Chinese suppliers, ensuring compliance with international standards.

Vince joined CBBC in mid 2006 as “China Business Adviser”.  He is CBBC sector lead for Manufacturing, Engineering and Environmental issues and has worked with many UK companies and provided many seminars and briefings on business culture and developing the relationships that deliver success in China.

Mr Steve Whatmore, Managing Director, Orchid Environmental Ltd

With 30 years experience in industry, Steve Whatmore is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management.

He has successfully negotiated with DEFRA and NWDA for Preferred Bidder status on the New Technologies Demonstrator Programme and secured a design, build, operate and maintenance contract for the 80,000 tonne per annum facility, securing all the necessary planning consents and operating permits.

Steve has also successfully negotiated two waste management contracts in South East Asia in Thailand and Malaysia.

Mrs Philomena Chen, Head of Asia Pacific, UK Trade & Investment North West

Philomena heads the Asia Pacific Team for UKTI North West.  She is responsible for promoting and engaging British businesses in bilateral trade with China and Asia Pacific countries.  Philomena will assist businesses interested in trading in the Asia Pacific regions with providing advice alongside various UK Trade & Investment support and initiatives.

An ethnic Chinese, born in Malaysia, Philomena has run her own business and has over 25 years experience working in sales and marketing with commercial companies, Higher Institutions and public organisations both in the UK and the Far East. Philomena speaks numerous languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew and Bahasa Malaysia.

Philip D Southward MBA, Director of Operations - Liverpool World Expo Pavilion

Philip is on secondment to the project from the North West Development Agency until the end of March 2011.  His current role is to deploy the Liverpool Pavilion, whilst facilitating a series of wider North West regional messages at the World Expo site in Shanghai China. 

Philip has significant experience in project management across a range of countries including Japan, the Gulf Co-operation Countries, Syria and now in China.  He has worked for the past 10 years in the senior management team at the NWDA and prior to taking this project secondment he led and successfully delivered a sub regional broadband connectivity project, Project ACCESS across Cumbria. 

He is here today to present the Liverpool Pavilion and to explain what opportunities still exist for participation within the initiative for all organisations based in the Northwest.