The Li Dak Sum Incubator was originally launched in September 2017 and is the university’s central hub for innovation and entrepreneurship which serves students, staff, graduates, and partners both at home and abroad. Over the past 4 years, the Incubator has nurtured over 30 start-up companies focusing on various areas and has also been a home to over 100 entrepreneurships from around the world.

Min Rose, Deputy Director of Knowledge Exchange of UNNC, attended the event and introduced the development plan of the Incubator. She stated the fundamental goals of the Incubator would be to “develop and retain talent and elaborate and improve technological capabilities” based on the university’s advantageous global talent and business resources, focusing on “innovation entrepreneurship education” and “startup incubation and development”. With a focus on student engagement, the development plan will be delivered in partnership with the faculties, Department of Campus Life, Development and Alumni Relations Office and industry partners.

Specifically, the innovation entrepreneurship education will be carried out through student experiential innovation studios, bootcamps, and competitions to provide students with systematic, interdisciplinary experiential entrepreneurial training. The startup incubation and development will bridge international and local technologies and ideas and provide comprehensive incubation services to support the development of startup teams.

The event also featured a virtual Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony among UNNC, Shenzhen InnoX academy, and Ningbo TechX institute, where each party agreed to strengthen ties among the three institutions and promote further co-operations in the areas of entrepreneurship education as well as innovation ecosystem development, research, and knowledge exchange.

Professor Patrick Chau, Vice Provost for Research and Knowledge Exchange of UNNC, was in attendance of the event and delivered a welcome speech. He thanked staff and guests to witness the launch of Li Dak Sum Incubator new space and emphasised the uniqueness of the Incubator which he referred to as “Glocal” – global plus local. He said the Incubator “offers the local community with a truly global vision and network by bringing global ideas and technologies to China, and also taking local business to the global world” and stated that he looks forward to the Incubator’s “next phase of development”.

The Incubator was named after Hong-Kong based businessman Dr Li Dak Sum to commemorate his generous support towards UNNC and Ningbo. The launch event included a virtual message of congratulations from Dr Li Dak Sum’s grandson and Donor Representative Dr Kenneth Li, who thanked the university for its support and hoped the incubator can continue to be place where “many successful entrepreneurs would come out of” and “be influenced by Dr Li’s spirit of giving back to community”.

To further celebrate the launch of the Li Dak Sum Incubator’s new space, the event included a Global Entrepreneurial Talents Pitch which allowed the Incubator entrepreneurs to present their ideas and technology, as well as offer a space for innovators and creators to engage with each other across different industries and sectors along with the potential matching of investors with entrepreneurs. A total of nine international teams from Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, UK and US showcased their projects, covering a wide range of areas such as agricultural automation, 3D visualisation of data and smart city management.