Inheriting the fine tradition of "studying for application" as a millennium academy, and taking advantages of the disciplinary and talent edges as a comprehensive and research-oriented university, Hunan University attaches great importance to basic researches while strengthening high-tech researches and developments, with Hunan as the core center and the nationwide expansion as its aim. The university also endeavors to deepen the cooperation among the industries, academia and research institutes, accelerates the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into actual productive forces and the process of industrialization, as well as vigorously improves the decision-making consulting service, thereby cultivating numerous talents for national and regional economic construction and social development.
Hunan University actively advances the construction of social service platforms and promotes the industry-academia-research institute collaboration. It has established an open, multi-channel and multi-level service mechanism through collaborating with all social sectors of the country to extend its service chain. Hunan University has successively signed all-round cooperation agreements or agreements on scientific and technological cooperation with 32 local governments locating in Hunan Province, Pan-Pearl River Delta, and Yangtze River Delta region. And the university has established cooperative relationships with 400 odd enterprises in Hunan and other provinces, such as Suzhou Industrial Park, Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone, Changsha National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, Shanghai General Motors Wuling Automobile Co., Ltd., Changan Automobile Corporate, Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., Changfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Hunan Valin Group, TBEA Hengyang Transformer Co., Ltd., Baling Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Wuhan Heavy Duty Machine Tool Co., Ltd., Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Zhuzhou Times New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Baiyun Electric Group Co., Ltd., etc. It has also established a batch of joint research centers (JRCs and laboratories), post-doctoral workstations, academician research offices, technology achievements incubation bases, and strategic alliances of industries, academia and research institutes. Over 400 technical special representatives from the university have been sent to technology-based enterprises in Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Ningbo and Yuhuan in China. A profound collaboration among industries, academia and research institutes has been conducted in the areas of automobiles and complete vehicles, key auto parts and equipment, high-efficiency grinding, new power transmission and transformation technology and equipment, new materials, light rail transit system, wind power generation technology, chemical engineering, and biotechnologies. During the period of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, Hunan University has been in charge of key industry-academia-research projects under the Development Plan for China Automobile Industry and other 5,087 research projects authorized by government departments at different levels, enterprises and institutions in Hunan Province, with total funding of 930 million yuan. Up to the end of 2009, Hunan University has been granted 765 patents and 62 items of software copyright registration, and applied for 12 international Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patents. The successful transformation and application of several scientific and technological achievements like sheet stamping technology, collision safety technology for automobiles, and complete sets of equipment for intelligence detection and selection in high-speed bottling production line have substantially enhanced the core competitiveness of enterprises, yielding enormous economic and social returns. Through the platforms for social service to integrate innovative sci-tech resources, virtuous interactions among society, governments, enterprises and Hunan University have been realized, accelerating the transformation of the university's sci-tech achievements into productive forces.
In recent years, based on the needs of national and local economic and social developments, Hunan University has restructured its disciplines configuration, and reformed the education plan and curriculum system. Dedicating itself to nurturing high-level and application-oriented talents, the university has formed several distinctive disciplines and majors with regional characteristics such as vehicle engineering and civil engineering. The university has shouldered the diploma and non-diploma education tasks for government departments of Hunan or other provinces and of large-scale enterprises represented by China Tobacco Machinery Group Corporation Ltd., Changfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Anhui Hualing Automobile Co., Ltd., SANY Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Heavy Duty Machine Tool Co., Ltd. In February, 2009, Hunan University signed the Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Running Yiyang Vocational and Technical College with Yiyang Municipal Government; in May of the same year, the university signed the Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Running Xiangjiang River College with Hunan Mingtai Education Investment Co., Ltd., striving to develop a skill-oriented base for talents training in tune with new-type industrialization of Hunan Province.
Making full use of disciplinary and talent advantages in the fields of finance, economy and trade, business administration, Huxiang(Hunan) culture, news media, film and TV arts and municipal environmental protection, Hunan University has established Hunan Credit Research Center, World Trade Organization (WTO) Research Center of Hunan Province, Hunan Cultural Industry Base and Hunan provincial Anti-corruption and Supervision Research Base. It has actively matched with strategic industries such as equipment manufacturing industry, modern service industry, and culture and creative industry in Hunan, facilitating the collaboration with governments and enterprises. And in the fields of foreign trade strategies, construction of rural-urban logistics system, individual credit system construction, business administration and innovative services, governmental anti-corruption construction, the spread and innovation of Huxiang(Hunan) culture, and urban/small township design and planning, the university has offered extensive and in-depth decision-making consulting services in different forms to governments and enterprises via many channels. After Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan (CZT) city cluster was approved as a pilot zone of comprehensive supplementary reforms in building up a "Two-Oriented Society", through integrating the superior disciplinary resources, Hunan University has founded an interdisciplinary research institute of "Two-Oriented Society", which engages in key research programs about the construction of "Two-Oriented Society" in Hunan Province and launches a series of research projects relating to green indicators, green finance and green architecture, thus actively providing the high-level and full-ranged theoretical support and service for Hunan's "Two-Oriented Society" construction. Additionally, Hunan University has undertaken the construction and maintenance work of the official portal website (English) of Hunan Province, which serves as an important platform for foreign exchanges and cooperation. The website is of pivotal significance in publicizing the developments and achievements realized in Hunan, attracting investment and launching oversea investment, exploring international market, serving the constructions of "Two-Oriented Society" and new-type industrialization of Hunan Province, and revealing the sound government image of Hunan Province with strong social cohesiveness and favorable administrative environment. As time goes by, Hunan University is gradually turning into an essential driving force for Hunan's development with limitless ideas, information and talents.
