The programme aims to contribute to the University Strategy 2020 by developing the PhD students and young researchers the writing skills of proposals, progress reports, publication and patent files. The programme is part of the Faculty’s initiatives to expand research capacity and outputs in terms of externally funded grants as well as high quality academic papers and patents. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the Faculty’s research impact and outreach and achieve the goals identified in the University Strategy 2020.

The workshop consists of two themes: (1) grant proposal writing on 26 October, and (2) academic paper writing on 2 November. A number of prestigious speakers from UNNC and external institutions were invited to deliver talks on various topics at the workshop. The Dean of Faculty of Science and Engineering, Prof. Tao Wu, delivered a welcome speech for the workshop, and Prof. Ning Dai (Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics), Prof. Jun Zhang (South China University of Technology), Prof. Xiaoning Zhang (Tongji University), Prof. May Tan-Mullins (Graduate School, UNNC), Prof. Ruibin Bai (School of Computer Science, UNNC), Dr. Jian Yang (Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing, UNNC) and Ms. Ada Qian (Research and Knowledge Exchange Office) gave the talks and shared their experience of grant proposal writing on 26 October. Prof. Jieshan Qiu (Dalian University of Technology), Prof. Dominic Chwan Yee Foo (UNMC) and Prof. George Chen (Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, UNNC) made presentations of academic paper writing on 2 November.  

Both of the sessions of the workshop attracted a large number of staff and PhD students from Faculty of Science and Engineering as well as other two Faculties over the campus. The audience has a very active interaction with the speakers in the discussion and Q/A sessions. It is expected that the speeches and the discussions at the workshop will benefit the future academic/study career development of the staff and PhD students.