2015 Beijing Humboldt Forum in Cooperation with ZEW
Events
The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation jointly organised this year's Beijing Humboldt Forum on September 19 to 21, 2015, in the Chinese capital. Within the framework of the forum, ZEW researchers presented their latest findings concerning the quality of Chinese patents, the evaluation of joint R&D programmes in Europe, and the relation between politicians' promotion and bank risk exposure in China. The forum, which took place under the heading "Green Economy, Cultural Heritage, and Innovation of Materials", aimed to strengthen the research cooperation between Germany and China in these fields.
Following his welcome address, ZEW Director Thomas Kohl was appointed as founding member of the Humboldt Forum. In the following session of keynote speeches, Philipp Boeing and Georg Licht from the Research Department "Industrial Economics and International Management" presented novel research on the quality of Chinese patents and the evaluation of the Eurostars Program, a joint R&D program in Europe. Michael Schröder from the Research Department "Financial Markets" chaired the session on green finance and presented research on the relation between the promotion of local bureaucrats and bank risk exposure in China. Prof. Dr. Xiaohu Feng from UIBE visited ZEW in summer 2015 to prepare the event and strengthen the cooperation between ZEW and UIBE.
Diverse presentations on green economy, innovation, and cultural aspects
About 120 participants from science and politics attended the event, which featured insightful presentations on China's potential for sustainable growth against the backdrop of a rapid economic and most of all industrial growth combined with an increasing environmental pollution. Key topics of the presentations included technological innovations, green mobility, China's path to market economy as well as cultural aspects affecting the cooperation between China and the western world. Further co-organisers were the Fraunhofer Society (FhG), BMW (China), the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (FH OOE), the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften (ISAS), the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), and the Institute of Glocal Low-carbon Economy, University of International Business and Economics (IGLCE).
Forum for interdisciplinary dialogue
A key characteristic of the event was that it promoted interdisciplinary dialogue, which is urgently needed to determine and examine the entire scope of the future challenges of a green and sustainable civilisation. High-profile speakers from different disciplines presented various perspectives on the topics under discussion and considered a variety of approaches to meeting the challenges. In keeping with the objective of interdisciplinary and international networking at the Humboldt Forum, valuable contributions to the debate were made by economists, philologists, physicists, engineers and further academics.