Much innovation depends on advances in basic scientific discoveries, which are often concept-driven, labour intensive, and therefore take time. There’s a fundamental dichotomy because you need these findings in order to innovate, but people think we’re not doing it fast enough.
Hindrances to innovation can come from within in terms of the governance and culture of a university, bureaucracy, and the mentality of staff and leaders. Fudan University has therefore taken action to promote interdisciplinarity and break down barriers.
Professor Rocky S Tuan Vice-Chancellor and President, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Professor Li Jin President, Fudan University
“The innovation race offers opportunities and challenges for society, which speak to the fundamental purpose of a university and what we do in terms of leading through these challenges and changes to indicate what good citizens need to pay attention to in future,” she said. Professor Tuan zeroed in on a fundamental question: what is meant by “innovation”? The definition he likes most comes from the American National Academy of Engineering. “There are four parts to this definition: innovation is a product, process or service, so it’s not just a discovery or invention. It has impact on society. It is an improvement so it’s not simply new. And it is a team activity. These are important things to keep in mind. Innovation is not just somebody discovering something in their lab,” he said. The Information Age had raised expectations from the community because people can access a lot more information than they used to and they want universities, as key generators of new information, to do more. “It’s somewhat analogous to the Reformation. Before the Bible was printed and available to everyone, there was only one authority, the Catholic church. Then, after it became
available, people expected more but the church could not deliver. So you had the Reformation,” he explained. However, universities do not innovate at the snap of a finger. “Much innovation depends on advances in basic scientific discoveries, which are often concept-driven, labour intensive, and therefore take time. There’s a fundamental dichotomy because you need these findings in order to innovate, but people think we’re not doing it fast enough – hence the panel’s topic of the snail’s pace,” he added. Moreover, universities have deep-rooted traditions and systems and slow decision cultures which could also hamper the speed of innovation. Politics in the 21 st century is also infiltrating academia and complicating things. Professor Tuan suggested universities could respond by keeping in mind the Chinese idea of the “three harmonies” – that progress can be made when it is the right time in the right place with the right people. These factors can be nurtured by creating the appropriate environment, providing resources, and ensuring that university administrations are well-informed and well- prepared to support innovators. They can also foster team
efforts through the creation of multidisciplinary research groups. And they should embrace the snail, which glides via the actions of multiple cilia. “Don’t disrespect the snail, it moves very carefully. All the cilia work together in unison. The snail also carries its home base with it. Don’t throw away the snail, but try to improve it,” he said. The other panellists all shared how they are trying to rise to these challenges. Professor Jin noted that hindrances to innovation can come from within in terms of the governance and culture of a university, bureaucracy, and the mentality of staff and leaders. Fudan University has therefore taken action to promote interdisciplinarity and break down barriers. More than 40 interdisciplinary research institutes and 20 academic development centres have been established. Each has staff from different disciplines and has optimised governance to promote interdisciplinary fusion. The university has also decided, following extensive discussion among faculty and senior leaders, to go all-out on AI. Whereas each professor had their own database and their own model, now they are pulling all the data together and using AI to move research forward.
Finally, to build a win-win ecosystem, Fudan University is establishing research institutes in places that have good access to funding, such as the Greater Bay Area, and it is exploring collaborations with universities, local government and enterprises. Recently, they also launched an innovation centre with an initial scale of RMB1 billion (US$139 million), to attract more capital for high-risk innovations. An example of how these efforts have successfully come together is a collaboration between Fudan University’s Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Innovation and Industry Research, and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Scientists developed a global weather forecasting model that can produce a 15-day forecast within a few seconds, which was launched on a new cloud-based scientific research and computing platform at the university. The platform itself can train models with 100 billion parameters in atmospheric sciences, life sciences and material sciences. “This is a good case in point for interdisciplinary collaboration. Breaking down the boundaries must be followed by integration,” he explained. UCLA is also embracing measures to support innovation, but Professor Block first reflected that the seemingly
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