Successful 9th Annual Meeting of the Sun Yat-sen University-Lingnan University Cooperative Development Committee

The 9th Annual Meeting of the Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU)-Lingnan University Cooperative Development Committee recently took place at the Lingnan Hall of the SYSU in Guangzhou. The meeting brought together leaders from both institutions, including Prof Zhang Qi, Vice Chairman of the University Council of the SYSU, and Prof Xin Yao, Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning at Lingnan University. Attendees included deans, directors, and representatives from schools, research institutes, and administrative departments, and discussions focused on increasing collaboration across multiple fields, including joint research platforms, faculty and student exchanges, talent cultivation, and future cooperation strategies. Both institutions aim to consolidate and expand collaborative projects and modernise partnerships to maximise mutual benefits.

The meeting opened with comments from the leaders of both universities. Prof Zhang Qi and Prof Xin Yao discussed their longstanding partnership and what it has achieved, emphasising the importance of integrating resources further, aligning with national and Greater Bay Area development priorities, and establishing a more substantive, institutionalised relationship in the new era.

On the agenda were discipline-specific discussions on economics, psychology, public administration, Studies on Guangdong, the Hong Kong and Macao SARs, foreign languages and literature, and information science, followed by plenary reports. Both sides reviewed ongoing collaborations systematically, and outlined future directions. Key items to action were identified, including regular faculty exchanges and academic cooperation between schools, co-organising flagship academic events such as the Lingnan Global Forum and the Psychology student exchange programmes, jointly applying for Guangdong–Hong Kong collaborative projects and research grants, and strengthening partnerships in dual-degree programmes and research initiatives. Other areas were also proposed, including joint research in new energy and materials science, plans for cross-disciplinary projects, communal laboratories, and shared postgraduate programmes.

A dedicated session on collaboration with the SYSU Institute of Advanced Studies Hong Kong, chaired by Prof Zheng Yue, Vice President of SYSU, and Prof Xin Yao, explored frontier interdisciplinary fields such as AI + Life and Health in order to create high-impact research platforms and technology transfer.