CSR Qingdao Sifang (CSR Sifang), a Chinese high-speed train maker, Tuesday signed a cooperation agreement with Britain's Imperial College, University of Southampton and University of Birmingham here to co-establish a research and development (R&D) centre in Britain.
The centre, named "China-UK Joint Research and Development Center for Rail Transit Technology," aims at conducting R&D cooperation on the new technology in the high-speed railway field, according to CSR Sifang, the core asset of CSR Corporation Limited.
Liang Jianying, chief engineer of CSR Sifang, said the center will carry out R&D cooperation on new technologies, materials, structures and processes in several aspects of high-speed trains and mass transit metro vehicles.
The center will focus on the research on the "connectivity" technology and standard normative system of the international rail transit, cultivate international talents and build a "highland" that brings the new technologies of the high-speed railway together in Europe, he added.
China's high-speed railway mileage has exceeded 16,000 km, accounting for over 60 percent of the world operation mileage. Its inventory of high-speed trains has reached over 1,500 trainsets, ranking the first in the world. The three British universities possess top scientific research and technological strength in the aerospace and rail transit field, said CSR Sifang.
Liang told media that CSR Sifang had implemented a R&D plan around the world in recent years, and has established an open innovation mechanism and platform integrated with production, learning and research. Previously, the company set up centers in Thailand and Germany respectively.
The latest agreement was signed at the 12th International Exhibition of Railway Equipment Systems & Services, which started May 12.
Last month, Zhuzhou China South Rail Times Electric Co, a subsidiary of CSR, signed an acquisition deal with Special Machine Developments, a Britain-based deep-sea robot and sub-sea engineering machinery manufacturer.
