On December 2, the Forum of Chinese and European Technological Universities was held at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Spain. Attending the forum were Huai Jinpeng, Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Education and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Juan Cruz, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities, Yao Jing, Chinese Ambassador to Spain, as well as presidents and party secretaries of 14 well-known technological universities from China and 11 from Europe. The forum was presided over by Guillermo Cisneros, President of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Oscar Garcia, the incoming President. Tan Tianwei, President of BUCT and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, attended the forum and made a keynote speech.
Huai Jinpeng and Juan Cruz affirmed the outstanding achievements made through Chinese-European cooperation in higher education, research and technology, personnel training and many other fields. They also put forward expectations and goals for further strengthening cooperation and development in the next 50 years under the principle of "understanding and trust, opening-up and cooperation, innovation and creation".
At the forum, Tan Tianwei made a keynote speech on the topic of science and engineering talent training in China and Europe. He said that BUCT has always attached great importance to cooperation with European universities and research institutes. Up till now, BUCT has co-established the " Paris Curie Engineer School" with École normale supérieure and Groupe des écoles d'ingénieur, cooperated with Università degli Studi di Genova for "Undergraduate Education Project for Industrial Design Major" and the "2+2 Project for Studying in China". Currently there are more than 200 students studying at BUCT, and 65 full-time teachers from Europe. Till now, BUCT has signed cooperation agreements with 75 European universities, and has collaborated with 17 European enterprises to build an international enterprise practice platform for strengthening engineering practice and school-enterprise co-cultivation. He pointed out that the BUCT’s research prowess has been continuously increasing, with three papers published on Cell in a row in half a month in 2023. Also, international conferences on biorefining and biomanufacturing, initiated by BUCT, have been held for eight consecutive sessions since 2007. Continuously promoting development in fields of green chemical industry, new energy, biological manufacturing, etc., BUCT has established close cooperative relations with more than 10 academicians of the European Academy of Sciences or Academies of different countries, and with nearly 100 high-level scientists from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland. There are also six international joint laboratories established in cooperation with European universities. On November 12, the "China-Spain Industry-University-Research Cooperation Forum" was held in Beijing when the two vice presidents and 13 professors from six Spanish universities attended the Forum and agreed to jointly build the "new energy and materials international joint laboratory". It is expected that universities in China and Europe will further strengthen cooperation in personnel training and scientific research, deepen exchange in new energy development, environmental protection, sustainable development and other fields, and jointly create a new prospect for China-Europe education as well as science and technology cooperation.
During his stay in Spain, President Tan visited the School of Mining and Energy Engineering of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Microgravity "Ignacio Da Riva" Research Institute, and had in-depth discussions with researchers on professional topics such as satellite control system monitoring, design and performance research of polymer alloy materials, and construction of microgravity flow models.