Livia De Zan
livia.dezan@polimi.it
Presentation
The University Alliance of the Silk Road (UASR), founded in 2015 by Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU), Xi'an, China, currently includes around 150 universities in more than 30 countries. UASR aims to be a global platform for university collaboration to foster development, cultural exchanges and synergies among countries along the Silk Road route.
The creation of the Alliance is indeed part of the ambitious New Silk Road project, inaugurated in 2013 by the Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the aim to revitalize this ancient trade route that connected China to Europe via two different paths, one by land and one by sea, transforming it into an opportunity for cultural growth and for the strengthening of collaborative initiatives for all countries in the Eurasian belt. The partner universities are mainly located in China, Russia, Europe and Central Asian countries. Politecnico di Milano, one of the founders of the Alliance, has taken on the presidency of UASR in January 2020 for a two-year period.
UASR Universities are collaborating in various fields through the creation of many sub-alliances and round tables, including: Energy Sub-Alliance, Management Schools Sub-Alliance, Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering Sub-Alliance, Advanced Manufacturing Sub-Alliance, Materials Science and Engineering Sub-Alliance, Heritage Alliance of the New Silk Road, Health Sub-Alliance.
Among the activities regularly organized by UASR there are:
- summer schools and summer camps, training programs and international competitions (for all interested students)
- scientific outreach events (seminars for specialists or a wider audience)