(Tsinghua News Center) Acting President of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Dr Michael Raymont visited Tsinghua University on May 26th, and signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) on behalf of NRC with Tsinghua.

These two MOU depicted the framework of the collaboration between NRC and Tsinghua on the research and development of hydrogen fuel cell. They included researching and developing technologies of applying blends of natural gas and hydrogen to conventional vehicle engines.

Tsinghua Vice President Gong Ke met with Dr Raymont in the I-shaped Hall and signed the MOU as the delegate of Tsinghua University.

Dr Raymont and Vice President Gong exchanged the research situation of two institutes, especially on the area of new energy research.

Dr Raymont then delivered a speech titled “Canadian Hydrogen Industry—A Showcase of Canadian Innovation System” in the reporting hall of School of Architecture of Tsinghua after the meeting.

Dr Raymont started his speech with the general introduction about innovation in Canada. He believed Canada was a very innovative nation despite its small population with the highest education level in the world.

He said the key to the innovation was “creating economic value from knowledge” through the commercialization of the utilization of knowledge for creating wealth; and it needed the cooperation of universities, institutes, corporations and risk capitals to achieve the goal.

Dr Raymont highlighted the research on the hydrogen technology in Canada in his speech. He said Canada had attained leading position in this realm since world’s first bus powered by hydrogen fuel cells was invented in Canada.

The hydrogen fuel cell industry now involves 17 companies in Canada and has yielded 188 million CAN$ in 2003.

He said the Canadian government still proposed one billion CAN$ for further research and development in hydrogen fuel cell, which in his opinion was plentiful, clean and versatile, and qualified as the “fuel for the 21st century”.

Dr Raymont said the first Hydrogen Village in the world was planned for the Greater Toronto Area in Canada late this year.

Tsinghua’s students exchanged the thoughts on the related issue with Dr Raymont after the speech.

Dr Raymont was appointed Acting President of NRC on April 2, 2004. He had principal responsibility for major national programs including the Industrial Research Assistance Program.

He also signed other MOU with Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and Tongji University during his visit to China.

Reported by Huang Ruixi