Leeds City Region welcomes the Governor of the Guangzhou Development District
Leeds City Region welcomed a delegation from Guangzhou to promote collaboration in science and innovation. The University of Bradford has strong established links with this region, partnering on healthcare technology projects.
28 July 2020
The Governor of the Guangzhou Development District (GDD) was welcomed to Leeds City Region by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Bradford, the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Nick Rousseau, Head of International Innovation Strategy, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and senior representatives from Leeds City Region.
The delegation spent a full day at the University of Bradford to discuss new opportunities in China-UK Health and Life Sciences innovation with key university, the White Rose Universities Consortium and Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network.
The second day included a business networking session hosted by Eversheds LLP.
The visit to Leeds City Region of the Governor of GDD, Mr Li Hongwei and his delegation in June 2015, reflects the strong commitment GDD has to further promoting collaboration in science, education, innovation and enterprise with our region. Governor Li is keen to understand more about our own strengths and to explore new models of investment and co-operation. The programme for their visit was arranged by the University of Bradford, the University of Leeds Business Confucius Institute, and the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership and aimed to showcase our strengths whilst introducing our own business and academic community to new investment, collaboration and market opportunities within Guangzhou and China.
Over the past six years, the University of Bradford has been running an open innovation programme in partnership with GDD, enabling (mainly) Yorkshire-based entrepreneurs to meet with leading companies and academic institutions with the aim of developing new technology for Chinese and global markets, and establishing new jointly-owned companies. To date 23 joint pharmaceutical and healthcare technology projects have received direct funding investment from GDD, totalling over £6m. Local sponsors of this programme have included the White Rose Universities Consortium, Yorkshire Cancer Research, and the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network.