Joint Fringe with Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists (ALDES)

This autumn conference in Glasgow, Aldes is teaming up with the Chinese Liberal Democrats to run a discussion panel on the challenges and opportunities for the UK's research sector in working with - or having to compete with - the rapid growth of China's science and technology industry.

China now invests over 1.98% of its GDP in research and development: a higher proportion than both the UK and the EU average, and is on track to hit a target of 2.5% of GDP by 2020. It also produces over 10% of all scientific papers published worldwide. Though the UK's proportional investment in R&D is lower (1.7% of GDP in 2011), we still have a high research output, especially when looking at highly-cited research papers.

But is the UK taking full advantage of potential partnerships with Chinese research and industry? And are UK researchers well enough informed about the risks and benefits of collaboration? We will hear from a panel of experts from a wide range of backgrounds to explore the current state of UK-China collaboration, and what could be done to improve outcomes.

Fringe details

13.00-14.00, Sunday 5 October 2014
Castle 3, Crowne Plaza Hotel
Glasgow

Panel speakers:

Tom Saunders

Tom Saunders is a Senior Researcher at Nesta focusing on the Chinese innovation system and a joint author of the report 'China's Absorptive State: Innovation and Research in China'. Prior to Nesta, he also worked in fundraising and research for the media and policy NGO chinadialogue, as an advisor and consultant for the tech transfer programme Innovation China UK, as well as at Demos and for a member of parliament.

Tariq Durrani

Professor Tariq Durrani is Vice President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He led the development of the University of Strathclyde's country-leading research group on Signal Processing and was notable for building successful research partnerships between academia, industry and government. More recently, he has been instrumental in the formation of international research collaborative ventures, including the China-Scotland Research Academy on Signal Image Processing (SIPRA), comprising nine high profile Chinese and five UK Universities for collaborative research and staff/student exchanges.

Professor Durrani has visiting appointments at Princeton, the University of Southern California, Stirling University (UK), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Khalifa University in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), and UESTC Chengdu in China. He is a candidate for President of the IEEE in 2015.

Cong Cao

Dr Cong Cao is one of the leading scholars in the social studies of China's science, technology, and innovation. He is the author of China's Scientific Elite, China's Emerging Technological Edge: Assessing the Role of High-End Talent (with Denis Fred Simon), and the forthcoming Genetically Modifying China. In August 2013, he led an effort to publish a paper in the journal Science pinpointing the problems of China's S&T system at the macro, meso, and micro levels and suggesting possible ways of reform. This year he published a further paper with Yutao Sun addressing China's central R&D expenditure.

Dr Cao has been invited by China's State Council Development Research Center and the World Bank to review the innovation part of the joint research China 2020. His research has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, IBM, European Union, among others.

Graham McGlashan

Graham is a Patent and Design Attorney with Marks & Clerk LLP and advises clients on a variety of IP-related issues, covering a wide range of fields including electronics, telecoms, energy, cleantech, oil and gas, automotive, defence and software-related inventions. His clients range from major multinational corporations and leading universities to SMEs and spinouts. Graham has assisted many clients in successfully obtaining IP protection in China and Hong Kong.

Marks & Clerk has one of the longest established Beijing offices of any international IP firm, and has the largest team in Hong Kong of multilingual specialists qualified and experienced in both intellectual property law and technology disciplines. The Marks & Clerk network features some 250 IP professionals across 17 offices in 9 countries worldwide.

Chair: Merlene Toh Emerson

Merlene is a former City solicitor with experience in international joint ventures and cross-border finance. On leaving full time legal practice, she re-qualified as a mediator and was co-founder of Chinese Liberal Democrats and Chinese Welfare Trust (a national charity). She stood as the Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate in Hammersmith in 2010 and for the London Assembly in 2008 and 2012. She was a member of the business delegation accompanying Business Secretary Dr Vince Cable to China in May this year.