In order to act on the thinking from the important speech by General Secretary Hu Jintao in Tsinghua University’s 100th anniversary celebration ceremony, Nankai university (NKU) actively promotes the collaborative innovation, organically integrates higher education with science and technology, economy and culture, and vigorously enhances our innovation capability to build a country of innovation and of profound human resources. Thus, NKU decides to implement the Institutions of Higher Learning Innovation Ability Enhancement (hereinafter referred to as the 2011 Project), and its implementation is as follows:

First, to carry out the 2011 Project is to act on the thinking from the important speech by General Secretary Hu Jintao. The main thread of this speech is to improve the quality of higher education. Innovation is the key to such improvement. Acting on the thinking of the speech requires NKU to vigorously promote the collaborative innovation and to encourage in-depth cooperation among colleges and universities, research institutions and enterprises. So that a strategic alliance can be established and resource sharing can also be efficient. Thus, NKU can achieve substantive achievements in key areas and continuously improve its innovation capability.

Second, to implement the “2011 Project” is to support the construction of an innovation-oriented country. In nowadays world, innovation capability has become the main driver for economic and social development and the core of national competitiveness. There is also an urgent need for new innovative ideas and models to keep pace with the rapid change in science and technologies. Therefore, NKU must accelerate the integration and transformation of knowledge and technologies based on interdisciplinarity and step up the consolidation and reorganization of innovation forces and resources. So that the partnership between governments, industries, universities, research institutions, and consumers can be fostered. Thus, NKU can support the transformation of economic and social development.

Third, to implement the 2011 Project is to promote the integration of education, science and technology, economy, and culture. For a long time, China's innovation forces scattered in different sectors, resulting in overlapping while allocating resources and insufficiency of innovation. Hence, there is an urgent need to remove the barriers of institutional mechanisms for independent innovation. The collaborative innovation that aggregates innovation forces from different sectors can be promoted as well as education, science and technologies, economic, and cultural undertakings. So that China’s overall innovative capability and competitiveness can be strengthened.

Two Collaborative Innovation Center for China Economy

Collaborative Innovation Center for China Economy (the former name of this program in initial stage was Collaborative Innovation Center for Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics, hereinafter referred to as “the Center”) was began to prepare in April 2012, then inaugurated and opened on September 15. In February 2013, the Center was up for accreditation review for the first time and ranked first in the preliminary assessment. In May 2014, the Center was up for the review of Ministry of Education; July, the expert group from the Ministry carried out an on-site inspection to the Center; November, the Center was officially authenticated by the state. The Center’s core cooperation units are Nankai University, Nanjing University, Renmin University of China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and National Bureau of Statistics. Other domestic and foreign cooperation units include National Development and Reform Commission’s Academy of Macroeconomic Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Ministry of Commerce, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the State Council’s Research Department of Policy, the University of Glasgow in the UK, the University of Alberta in Canada, and the University of Hawaii in the US.

The Center shoulders the important duties of addressing important theoretical issues, forging an academic discourse system with Chinese characteristics, solving the key issues that restrict the economic development, and building a national high-end think tank. The Center gives full play to its advantages and unique functions of every cooperation unit. By keeping the motherland in heart and the world in mind, the Center also aims at the great demand of building the cutting-edge subjects and the socialist economy with Chinese characteristics. The Center also focuses on the important theories and practical problems that emerged from the process of reform and opening-up and the modernization. By prioritizing the institutional reform and taking the enhancement of innovation capability as a breakthrough, the Center vigorously promotes the collaborative innovation to provide high-quality intelligences and talents’ support for a sound and rapid economic and social development. Striving for economic development will be at the core of the Center’s effort. Jointly solving the problem of China's economic realities and enhancing China's voice in economic matters will be the Center’s goal. Targeting at completing eight groundbreaking works, the Center comprehensively enhances the innovation capability of advice and administrative services, scientific research, discipline construction, personnel training.

With senior professors and Changjiang scholars as the backbone, the Center has more than 160 members, include: members of the Discipline Assessment Groups of the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council, experts with outstanding contributions at the national level, national outstanding professional and technical personnel, primary experts and consultative experts on Marxist Theory Research and Development Project, distinguished professors from Changjiang Scholars Program, , National Teaching Awards winners, foreign experts and owners of provincial and ministerial level title. Furthermore, the Center will recruit relevant personnel based on the need at any time.

The Center adopts the system of department head responsibility. It is led by the its governing council while its academic committee will responsible for academic issues. Designated members from different cooperation units constitute the governing council, the decision-making body of the Center. The academic committee, authorized by the council, is composed of well-known experts from home and abroad, which will responsible for consultation and checks of major issues in academic field. The Center sets up positions of director, deputy director. They are appointed by the council and will preside over the Center’s works. The Center has established eight innovative research platforms. They are: platform of basic economy and distribution system, platform of regional economic coordination and integration of urban and rural development, platform of economic globalization and open economy, platform of economic security and national economic governance, platform of big data served China's economy, platform of China's economics’ construction and personnel training. A chief expert convener will be set up in each platform, and responsible for the collaborative innovation of the expert team.

Since its establishment, the Center has received strong support from the Ministry of education and five collaborative units. The Center has formulated and implemented many systematic measures of institutional reform and achieved initial achievements. It has renovated the management structure at top level, unified the systems and policies, innovated the personnel management system, forged a first-class innovation team, established a scientific assessment system with incentives and restraints coexisting, set up a collaborative research mechanism, and formed a collaborative innovation culture. It has also created a new resource allocation model; fostered interdisciplinarity; intensified the cooperation between governments, industries, universities and research institutions; cooperatively nurtured innovative talents; built a sharing system; optimized the effect of collaborative innovation; and innovated the mode of cooperation and cultural heritage mechanism.

Through the integration of resources, institutional reform, team convergence, the Center and its members have jointly overcome difficulties and achieved remarkable results. It has yielded a series of achievements that were adopted by the Party and governments and generated economic and social benefits. It also has produced many theoretical results and made great contribution to our country's modernization, economic theory innovation and discipline development. Through the program of “Experimental Class for Top-notch Innovation Talents”, the Center has implemented many measures on teaching reform and has injected vitality to the reform of the mode and system for talents development in universities. The collaborative innovation system the Center forged has provided the higher education reform an experience to draw on. The Center has established the Oversea Research Base. In here, in-depth academic exchanges at both home and abroad have been made to expand the China’s global presence.

The Center will comply with the requirement of “country’s demand and ascending to world-class”. It will also insist on the major theoretical and practical issues from the process of China's reform and opening-up and modernization. It will also prioritize the institutional reform and enhance the comprehensive research and study of the reform, opening-up, operation and development theory of socialist economy with Chinese characteristics, as well as China's road and system. So that the Center can provide strategic, overall and forward-looking support in theory and policy for the country, and cultivate more high level specialized personnel of quality and innovation capability, who are also familiar with the theory of Socialist economy with Chinese characteristics. Hence, the Center can provide a strong support in personnel for modernization.