The University of Macau (UM) Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) has received approval to join China’s national system of co-working space. This is testament to the Ministry of Science and Technology’s recognition of industry-academia development at UM and the central government’s encouragement and support for the development of technological innovations as well as the commercialisation of research result in Macao.
Last year, experts from the ministry’s Torch High Technology Industry Development Centre visited the CIE under UM’s Institute of Collaboration Innovation (ICI). According to their opinions, the centre has all the necessary conditions for serving as a National Co-working Space. Recently, the centre has been included in China’s national system of national co-working space. Co-working space refers to an innovation and entrepreneurship platform that provides work, network, social exchange, and resources for innovators and entrepreneurs. Since its establishment, the centre has been actively promoting interactions between UM and other parties, including the government, schools, enterprises, incubators, venture capital institutions, as well as entrepreneurial mentors, in order to create an environment that can boost ‘innovative thinking, innovative ability, and innovative entrepreneurship’ and to promote collaboration between industry, universities, and research institutes.
Industry-academia collaboration is a systematic project, which requires the expansion of the original organisational boundaries and the establishment of platforms to integrate social resources as well as collaborative innovation in order to encourage and support researchers to make substantial contributions to economic development. The major work of the CIE is to assist teachers and students in implementing their creative ideas and to provide them with an industry-academia support platform for innovation and entrepreneurship, so as to develop a mechanism that produces a new type of professionals and transform Macao into an innovative society. Currently, the centre has three main functions, namely: (1) cultivating innovative and entrepreneurial professionals; (2) establishing a selection mechanism based on entrepreneurial projects; (3) providing software and hardware support for project incubation.
The CIE’s incubation programme focuses on the research results in outstanding disciplines and projects with industrialisation potential at UM, in order to maximise its advantages and initiate hard technology incubation services to strengthen research development and knowledge transfer, in order to increase the impact of UM’s research results. In the future, UM will continue to allocate resources to providing entrepreneurial support and discovering outstanding entrepreneurial teams, nurturing innovative professionals in Macao, and participating in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in response to President Xi Jinping’s instruction: ‘Nurture more professionals who love China and Macao, produce more achievements in science and technology, promote economic diversification and sustainable development in Macao, and support the development of the Greater Bay Area.’
As the only international comprehensive public university in Macao, UM has over the years received support from the central government, the Macao SAR government, and all sectors of society, and for this reason the university is responsible for building a better Macao through science and education. In line with China’s development strategies, including the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative and the Greater Bay Area initiative, UM will continue to allocate resources to promote economic diversification in Macao. In addition, through cultivating and strengthening new industries, promoting the transformation of technological innovation, and promoting education development, UM will take advantage of its strengths in innovation to support the sustainable development of the SAR, promote the transformation and application of scientific research results, and take a lead in innovation and technology development in Macao.
