The University of Zurich (UZH) is aiming at greater cooperation with China in science, clean energy, and medicine, including Chinese traditional medicine, pharmaceuticals, neuroscience, and cancer research.
"For us, China is a very important area....We want to be more present in the Chinese academic community," said UZH Vice President Christian Schwarzenegger in a recent interview with Xinhua.
"One of my tasks is to set up good partnerships including closer partnerships, not only student exchanges but also scientific cooperation and maybe making a step forward doing joint research projects," he added.
The university is the largest in Switzerland, with 26,000 students, and is world renowned in medicine, immunology, genetics, neuroscience, and structural biology as well as in economics.
To date, 12 UZH scholars, including Albert Einstein, have received the Nobel Prize.
One example Schwarzenegger cited for potential cooperation was that the city of Beijing has many hospitals and the Swiss university can explore collaboration on collecting data on patients for research.
He added that UZH already has many indirect contacts in Chinese and alternative medicine, research into pharmaceuticals, cancer, and neuroscience in China.
"We don't have a strategic link with Beijing (Peking) University or Tsinghua University yet. However, we are open to discussing this. China is a strategic area for our activities," he noted.
Schwarzenegger said this could be the start a larger scale of cooperation in medicine.
He noted, "We are one of the few universities in Europe besides Berlin that has a chair in alternative medicine," where UZH is firmly connected to China, with strong ties to Chinese partners.
"We are quite advanced in this area compared to other universities," said the UZH vice president, noting "China is a trustworthy partner."
He believed that after a few meetings to build trust between both partners, "They can incorporate very easily."
The university is also seeking partners in China in sustainable finance.
"Business and the financial sectors do not pay enough attention to the consequences of the effect of economic activities on the environment," said Schwarzenegger.
"So, there is a new line of financial research that is calculating these risks into investments. it is called sustainable finance or impact investment. We want to promote this on an international level."
How to invest money in specific industries to promote clean energy? How to resolve the waste and pollution problem? These are "what the next generation of students must resolve for us all," including people in China and Europe, he added.
"We know that humankind faces problems such as climate change, poverty, water resources, or cancer deaths," said Schwarzenegger, "We would like to work with Chinese partners in finding answers."
Editor:Cherie
