Please join the Secretariat Office in congratulating this year’s 14, rather than the originally planned ten, selected joint research and publication projects. These 14 projects and their lead professor who will be partnered with a Guangzhou University faculty member include:

1. Towards Building an Infrastructure Resilient Food Supply Chain System; Professor Vikas Kumar; University of the West of England; Fields of Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences

2. Energy Innovations for Sustainable Development of the Economy: Industry 5.0 Priorities; Kateryna Kopishynska; National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”; Field of Alternative Energy

3.The Mechanism of Smart City Development in the Context of the Society 5.0. Transition; Serhii V. Voitko; National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”; Field of Tourism/Smart Cities

4. Understanding Electronic Properties of Cathode Materials for a Better Microbial Electrolysis Cell Performance; Dr. Xianjie Liu; Linköping University; Fields of Intelligent Technologies and Smart Cities

5. Study the Impact of Molecular Weight of Polymer Acceptor on All Polymer Solar Cells with Transient Absorption (TA) Spectroscopy; Professor Fengling Zhang; Linköping University; Fields of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Technologies

6.Innovative Business Strategies in Response to COVID-19’s Impact on Tourism: A Post COVID Tourism Resilience and Regenerative Framework; Karina Wardle; Western Sydney University; Field of Tourism/Smart Cities

7. Innovative Technologies for High-Grade Recycled Concrete Production from Construction and Demolition Waste; Professor Vivian Tam; Western Sydney University; Fields of Artificial Intelligence and Smart Cities

8. Agronomic Effects of Field Inoculation with Bacteria Consortia in Wheat Planting; Teofilo Vamerali; University of Padova; Life Sciences; Fields of Entrepreneurship and Advanced Financial Technology

9. Abrupt Eco-environmental Changes in Coastal Lagoons Since the Anthropocene and their Ecological Restoration; Earth and Environmental Sciences; Meryem Beklioglu and Erik Jeppesen; Middle East Technical University; Field of Earth and Environmental Science

10. Data Privacy and Security Protection for Distributed Swarm Learning Environments; Jorge Sá Silva; University of Coimbra; Field of Artificial Intelligence

11. Valued Added Tourism: Comparative Analysis Across China and Australia; Dr Julie Jie Wen; Western Sydney University; Field of Sustainable Tourism

12. Verbal Space Perception of Bone Conducted Sound; Stefan Stenfelt; Linkoping University; Field of Artificial Intelligence

13. Recent Developments in the Mathematical Sciences and the Sustainable Development Goals: Selected Case Studies; Sibusiso Moyo; Stellenbosch University; Field of Artificial Intelligence

14. Mental Health Promoters: Prevention of Disorders and Suicide at Work; Gascón Santos; University of Zaragoza; Field of Life Sciences 

A total of 19 joint research and publication proposals were received and we wish to thank everyone for their proposals. We especially wish to thank our selection committee which included Professors Yi-Chen Lan, Francois Bedard, Tian Zhihong, Palesa Natasha Mothapo and Cao Shijie from Western Sydney University, University of Quebec at Montreal, Guangzhou University, Stellenbosch University and Southeast University.