XJTLU and CP Group forge partnership to build future innovation ecosystem

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) and Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, Thailand’s largest conglomerate, have formally initiated a strategic partnership to open new avenues for industrial innovation, educational transformation, and social development.

The two parties signed a framework agreement for the XJTLU-CP Future Innovation Ecosystem for the Digital and Intelligence Era during a symposium on the initiative on 6 July.

Anchored in forward-looking research, the partnership will deliver real-world results through talent development and industrial practice, amplifying its reach and impact through international communication and social influence.

The collaboration will create a closed-loop partnership running from trendspotting and problem-framing through research innovation, talent cultivation, and scenario-based validation and commercialisation of outcomes.

Professor Youmin Xi (left), XJTLU’s Executive President, and Xiaoping Yang (right), Senior Vice Chairman of CP Group and CEO of CP China, sign the framework agreement on 6 July

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Professor Youmin Xi, Executive President of XJTLU, said that the University and CP Group will draw on their strategic missions and resource strengths to build a development community geared to the digital and intelligent age – integrating social responsibility with a global outlook – and pioneer new models of collaborative innovation that bring together universities, businesses, industries, and society.

Professor Youmin Xi

The ecosystem will be defined by four interconnected layers: The first focuses on the future direction of society and civilisation; the second anticipates the coming industrial landscape and strategic positioning, and reimagines digital and intelligent research methodologies; the third incorporates talent research, training, and practice hubs to support the XJTLU 4.0 future-oriented learning and innovative social ecosystem; and the fourth features a global impact platform generating replicable, scalable Chinese approaches and global practices.

Together, these layers will answer how collaborative outcomes can deliver social impact, achieve international reach, and contribute to shaping the future order.

“Civilisation research charts the direction, industrial research delivers solutions, talent research and training drives implementation, and the global impact platform amplifies value – this is the overarching logic and vision behind the four-layer structure,” Professor Xi said.

Xiaoping Yang

Xiaoping Yang, Senior Vice Chairman of CP Group and CEO of CP China, spoke highly of Professor Xi’s vision and commended the University’s strategic foresight and depth of insight.

Yang spoke of the conglomerate’s decade-long partnerships with universities including Tsinghua University and introduced several global strategic initiatives, as well as expressed his hope that the CP-XJTLU venture will cultivate a new generation of future-ready talent.

The two parties will now prioritise launching the first batch of key demonstration projects.

Representatives from XJTLU and CP Group at the signing ceremony

By Luyun Shi

Translated by Xueqi Wang

Edited by staff editor and Xinmin Han

Photos courtesy of Jingrui Duan