On November 23 and 24, 2015, the Seminar of Expert Group for Sino-German Innovation Platform took place in Beijing. It was attended by more than 40 experts representing Chinese and German government agencies, research institutes and enterprises. The Chinese entities represented included CASTED, Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Institute of Policy and Management of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Tongji University, China Automotive Technology & Research Center, China Solid State Lighting Alliance (CSA), Zhejiang University of Technology, China Association for Small & Medium Commercial Enterprises, Shanghai Electric Vehicle Data Collection and Research Center, and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. German entities represented included the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), and German Embassy in China. The Seminar was chaired by CASTED President Hu Zhijian.

The first stage of the seminar focused on the Sino-German Innovation Policy Platform and the latest developments in Sino-German STI strategy and policy with topics including STI strategies of China and Germany, national research programs, national innovation system, and industrial development. The two sides gave thematic speeches and had in-depth discussions on themes such as China’s innovation-driven development strategy, S&T system reform, university-based R&D system, and innovation cluster, Germany’s high-tech strategy, Industry 4.0 strategy and China strategy.

During the second stage of the seminar, the attendees discussed the preparation of the Sino-German Innovation Conference of the next year, and representatives of entities involved in collaborative research in areas including Sino-German electric mobility, urbanization, clean water, biotechnology, LED and innovation policy had in-depth discussions on relevant topics.