Huawei's William Xu highlights industry-academia collaboration for innovation and talent cultivation

Huawei's Director of the Board and Chair of the Scientist Advisory Committee William Xu was invited to deliver an online speech titled "Industry-Academia Collaboration for Joint Innovation and Talent Cultivation" at Times Higher Education's Asia Universities Summit. 

The director, during his speech, shared the approaches and practices adopted by Huawei during its collaboration with universities on innovation, joint research, talent cultivation, and tech competitions.

"Huawei works with universities to build open and innovative platforms for joint research and talent cultivation. Through the dual drivers of vision and application research, the industry and academia work together to define 'top challenges' and conduct innovation. These efforts are aimed at resolving the problems facing the industry and making groundbreaking achievements," said Xu. 

He added that Huawei invested $400 million into university collaboration in 2021, and intends to invest more for deeper collaboration in the future.

Working side by side, we can ensure that our research and talent keep up with the latest developments, he noted.

Huawei works with over 300 universities and 900 research institutes worldwide. In 2021, it invested $400 million in university collaboration. 

The industry can work with universities on course and program design, joint talent training, and tech competitions, to identify and cultivate talent at numerous levels.

From the industry's perspective, Xu proposes five actions for industry-academia collaboration including continuing supporting breakthroughs in basic research and technology, and continuous industry innovation, among others.