China - Collaboration

Oxford University has an extensive range of collaborations with China across a number of disciplines. Some of the highlights include:

•   Oxford’s Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) are collaborating with Chinese partners on the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) a globally unique study investigating the causes of major chronic diseases. It is a study of massive proportions, with the health of 100,000 people in over 10 locations being studied by 160 project staff members.

•    Genetic Variants and Depression: Professor Jonathan Flint of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and Dr Yiping Chen of CTSU are collaborating with Professor Shenxun Shi of Fudan University and Professor Kenneth Kendler of Virginia Commonwealth University on a five-year study to identify the genetic variant linked to depression, by working with 12,000 women from 53 hospitals across China. Professors Flint and Kendler have also started a study of schizophrenia and are planning a study of alcoholism.

•    In April 2011 Oxford University launched a new collaborative centre based at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the Collaborating Centre of Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response (CCOUC). While Asia is ranked as the most disaster prone region of the world in both natural and man-made disasters, research and training in the Asia-Pacific region is limited. The objective of CCOUC is to focus on academic, research and training on disaster preparedness, relief and response in the Greater China region. Based on the technical expertise and network of Oxford Asia, University of Oxford, CCOUC will support research, training, and academic exchange in the area of disaster and humanitarian medicine.

 •   The Li Ka Shing Global Health Programme at Oxford was founded in 2007 following a generous donation by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. The Global Health Programme funds a series of partnerships, teaching and research projects which develop the best responses to the current challenges facing global health. The Shantou Oxford Clinical Research Unit (SOCRU) at Shantou University Medical College was established in May 2010, with the aim of  bringing together skills, expertise and ideas through global health research projects in. SOCRU also provides collaborative training courses to future scientists.

  •   The ACE Trial, headed by Professor Rury Holman,is a double-blind randomised and multi-centre study into cardiovascular intervention. Led by Oxford University, the People's Hospital at Peking University and the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing, the ACE works with more than 150 hospitals throughout China to determine whether reducing post-prandial glycaemia with acarbose can reduce cardiovascular-related morbidity and mortality in patients with established cardiovascular disease and impaired glucose tolerance.

•    Technology transfer and innovation: Dr Xiaolan Fu, Director of the Programme for Technology and Management for Development at Oxford, is collaborating with scholars at Tsinghua University to study patterns of technology transfer and industrial innovation. The collaboration brings Tsinghua students to study at Oxford, organises an annual conference on innovation and entrepreneurship, and produces joint papers, including one forthcoming in the Cambridge Journal of Economics.

•    Dr Christine Wong, Professor of Chinese Public Finance, is co-director of a Ford Foundation-funded research project on “Improving Local Governance for the Harmonious Society”. Working in collaboration with the China Development and Research Foundation, Dr Wong is leading a team of researchers and graduate students from several Chinese universities to conduct a detailed study of the fiscal status of local governments at the municipal and county levels, and to scrutinize the institutional foundations of the government’s effort to improve public services.

 •    The Oxford Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art and Culture. Researchers in Oxford University’s School of Archaeology are undertaking a major archaeological research project in collaboration with researchers from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing. The project, ‘China and Inner Asia (1,000-200 BC): Interactions that changed China’, is supported by a major research grant from the Leverhulme Trust, and will examine how early Chinese societies made use of different foreign materials and technologies, such as iron and bronze working.

 •   The British Inter-University China Centre (BICC) is a joint venture between Oxford, Bristol, and Manchester Universities. Funded  through the Language Based Area Studies Scheme by the AHRC, BICC organizes a series of research networks and placements, as well as a language training programme.

These represent just a small sample of the myriad of collaborations between Oxford University and China. Details of further collaborations can be viewed in our Oxford-China brochure, available to download on the right hand side of this page. The University has formal partnership and collaboration agreements with some of China’s top universities and research institutions including Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials (BIAM). Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education has also trained more than 3,000 Chinese government and university officials through its leadership programmes.