On June 14, HUST and the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone signed a strategic framework agreement for cooperation in various fields from S&T innovation to industrial development. At the same time, the Optics Valley Integrated Circuit (IC) Innovation Platform Alliance was inaugurated with Academician You Zheng as the leader.

Chair of the University Committee, Li Yuanyuan, President You Zheng, Vice Presidents Zhang Xinliang and Xie Xiaolin of HUST; Liu Jie, secretary of the Standing Committee of Wuhan Municipal Commission attended the ceremony. Zhang Yongqiang, director of the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone Management Committee, presided over the ceremony.

You Zheng emphasized that the purpose of the establishment of the Optics Valley IC Innovation Platform Alliance is to support the national strategy and accelerate the promotion of the core competitiveness of the Optics Valley IC industry. Since the introduction of semiconduction-related majors in 1960, HUST has established "Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering" as the first-level discipline in 2020. Additionally, with the establishment of the School of Integrated Circuits in 2021, HUST is capable of taking the lead in the establishment of the Optics Valley IC Innovation Platform Alliance. The alliance will focus on fostering the development of national strategic scientific and technological forces, attracting a group of scientists, deepening school-enterprise cooperation in training outstanding engineers, and establishing a foundation for transforming scientific and technological achievements.

Liu Jie commended HUST for its long-term attention and support to Optics Valley and thanked Academician You Zheng for serving as the leader of the alliance. She pointed out that Optics Valley and HUST share the same pursuit of "world-class". Over the past 30 years, the two sides have jointly built a number of leading enterprises in innovation and entrepreneurship, overcome a number of key technology "bottlenecks", and had 100,000 HUST alumni build Optics Valley. The Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone will, as always, collaborate with HUST to build a first-class high-tech park and a first-class science city in the world, and become the best partner of HUST in becoming a world-class university.

Li Yuanyuan emphasized that famous cities give birth to prestigious universities, and prestigious universities in turn make famous cities great. The signing of the strategic framework agreement and the announcement of the alliance mark the beginning of a phase of cooperation between HUST and Optics Valley. The two-way promotion of scientific research and industry between the two sides is not only a crucial step toward the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, but also an important measure to accelerate local economic, and social development and improve the quality of education. HUST will focus on the integrated development of industry, learning, research, and application, jointly conduct core research, transform and industrialize scientific and technological achievements with Optics Valley, share scientific and technological resources, and promote the delivery of additional HUST scientific and technological achievements to Optics Valley.

In terms of strategic framework agreement, HUST and the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone will jointly build 8 projects to establish a world-class science city and university--Focusing on national strategic projects, jointly build national strategic scientific and technological forces, and focusing on the cultivation and construction of national laboratories; Building a major science and technology infrastructure cluster focus on the big science project; Centering on key technology research projects, jointly build a national high-level innovation platform and a national innovation center; Focusing on the transformation major project achievements, jointly build an efficient transformation base with characteristics, and focusing on optimizing and upgrading the Industrial research Institute and the joint construction of high-end Medical Equipment Research Institute; Centering on the talent introduction and education project, jointly build a livable, researchful and creative city, focusing on improving the surrounding environment of the universities and their key projects; Centering on the accelerating project of emerging industries, jointly build five new industrial bases in Optics Valley; Centering on the future industry cultivation project, jointly build a national future industry science park; Focusing on the internationalization strategic project, jointly build world-class universities and a world Optics valley, and build a high-end think tank platform for academicians.

The Optics Valley IC Innovation Platform, with You Zheng as the first leader, owns its founding members including the national integrated circuit integration education innovation platform, Hubei Semiconductor Industry Association, Hubei Optics Valley laboratory, and other Hubei experiments, National advanced storage industry innovation center, Wuhan Gaode micro electromechanical and sensing Industrial Technology Research Institute and other scientific research institutions, enterprises and institutions, and related colleges of HUST, WHU, WHUT, HUT, CUG (Wuhan), to jointly create a "government-industry-university-research-application-investment" consortium.

Written by: Meng Ziyun

Edited by: Luo Xiaofan, Luo Xin, Jiang Jing