On May 18, Nankai University (NKU) and CITIC Capital Holdings Limited (CITIC Capital) held a signing ceremony for strategic cooperation agreement at the Haibing Center on NKU Balitai Campus. The ceremony was attended by Chen Yulu, President of NKU, and Zhang Yichen, Chairman and CEO of CITIC Capital. Fang Yongchun, Vice President of NKU, and Liu Mo, Deputy Chief Operating Officer of CITIC Capital, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective institutions.

CITIC Capital is a globally recognized alternative investment management platform with distinctive strengths in industrial collaboration, global resource integration, and market-driven operations. As a China-focused alternative investment leader with unmatched on-the-ground experience, CITIC Capital will collaborate with NKU through an innovative “Academia + Capital” model encompassing establishment of investment entity, development of innovation support system, co-established investment management platform, shared research laboratory, enhanced talent development and knowledge exchange, and elevated precision and effectiveness of technology transfer. 

Representatives from both parties held strategic talks before the signing ceremony. Chen Yulu expressed his gratitude to CITIC Capital’s generous support for NKU’s research initiatives and reviewed the university’s educational heritage and disciplinary strengths. He highlighted NKU’s strong disciplinary foundation and robust growth in emerging engineering fields. According to him, the university is fostering a balanced academic ecosystem spanning humanities, sciences, engineering, and medicine. He noted that technology finance has become a pivotal force in advancing technological innovation and new quality productive forces. He also stressed NKU’s commitment to serving China’s major development priorities, accelerating breakthroughs in core technologies in key areas, and deepening the integration of scientific research and industrial innovation. President Chen believed that the strategic partnership between NKU and CITIC Capital and the joint effort in building a new innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem would inject tremendous vigor into NKU’s research and innovation. He called for enhanced efforts from both parties in deepening collaboration to accelerate the translation of innovative research into production-ready solutions, advance China’s distinctive technology finance ecosystem, and reinforce the country’s technological strength.

Zhang Yichen expressed his honor in establishing the strategic partnership with NKU. He outlined CITIC Capital’s general development and business portfolio and recognized NKU’s long history, academic excellence, and disciplinary strengths. He held that NKU has demonstrated tremendous potential in basic research, patent commercialization, and industry-academia collaboration. He was impressed by the growth momentum and remarkable achievements of Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park since its launch two years ago. He looked forward to collaborating with NKU to pioneer innovative technology transfer models, which he believed is a strategically significant initiative with substantial growth potential. He hoped that both parties would leverage their respective strengths and maximize synergies to deepen collaboration in addressing China’s strategic priorities for finance-enabled technological innovation and bringing together scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs to advance technology finance initiatives. 

（Edited and translated by Nankai News Team.)