Hosted by Northwestern Polytechnical University, the 23rd Annual General Meeting of ISTA was held in Xi’an on 12 October 2018. Director-General of Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Mr LEI Chaozi (雷朝滋); Deputy Director-General of Science and Technology Department of Shaanxi Province, Prof. LAN Xinzhe (兰新哲); President of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Prof. WANG Jinsong (汪劲松), and Senior Advisor to the President of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Prof Angelina YUEN (阮曾媛琪) addressed to more than 80 delegates in the opening addresses, reflecting on the course of the development of the Alliance dedicated to international exchange to promote best practices of technology transfer for policy makers and top university executives for contributing to the regional innovation systems.

 
In the meeting, members unanimously approved the application of University of Cambridge for Alliance membership, making it the 28th institutional member of ISTA. Prof. PAN Yi (潘毅), was also accolated as an honourable Individual Member for his significant contribution to the Alliance during his tenure as Vice President and formal representative of Nanjing University. 
 
Member universities had ardent discussions on the topics of training of technology transfer practitioners as a recognized professionals under the ATTP accreditation framework (Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals, www.attp.info), and deliberated on the future strategic development of ISTA to be a contributing partner in the international technology transfer domain that has in so far mainly run by western organizations from developed nations.
 
A mini Knowledge Transfer Management Forum themed “Academic Technology Transfer Governance and Risk Management” was held in the afternoon with participants sharing policies and practice on governance issues and mechanisms in promoting technology transfer as a key mission of their institutions.

In the order of presentation, the topics and keynote speakers are:

Governance in Knowledge Transfer: The Australian Approach in Practice
Dr Liz JAZWINSKA, Director of Research Engagement and Business Development, RMIT University, Australia
(presentation file)
Chinese University Technology Commercialization Risk Management: A National Agenda
Prof. Rongxiang ZHAO (赵荣祥), Director, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Zhejiang University, China
(presentation file)
Management Innovation for Ecosystem Conducive to Academic Technology Commercialization
Prof. Baowei SONG (宋保维), Vice President, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
(presentation file)
An Academia-Entrepreneur Perspective: Balance and Integration
Prof. Weidong HUANG (黄卫东), Chairman, Xi’an Bright Laser Technologies Co., Ltd. &
Professor, Northwestern Polytechnical University,  China
(presentation file)

ISTA members are welcome to download the presentation slides listed above. To access the protected files, please send a request to ista.secretariat@polyu.edu.hk for the password.

ISTA will be conducting its next Executive Committee meeting hosted by Nanjing University in May 2019.