Chaohua Building of Hainan University (Photo by Gao Kehe)
Collaborative Innovation Center of Hainan University (Photo by Gao Kehe)
As Teachers’ Day (September 10) in 2025 approaches, faculty teams in the university’s laboratories are tackling challenges in deep-sea exploration and seed breeding; at legislative seminars, scholars are contributing insights to Free Trade Port institutional innovation; and in the fields, PhD holders are working hand-in-hand with farmers to improve agricultural techniques.
As the “talent cradle” and “innovation engine” of the Hainan Free Trade Port, HNU has faithfully followed President Xi Jinping’s call to build world-class disciplines at the university. Guided by the mission of “HNU delivers for Hainan”, the university attracts global talent, advances academic development, and leverages seven collaborative innovation centers to position its faculty as a driving force for Hainan’s high-quality growth.
Building the Talent and Disciplinary System to Serve the Free Trade Port
“Choosing to build my career at HNU means growing together with the Free Trade Port,” said Cui Nan, a PhD graduate from the University of Leeds, at the 2024 HNU International Young Scholars Forum—an example of HNU’s strong talent appeal. As Hainan’s only Double First-Class university, HNU leverages the Ministry-Provincial Co-Development framework to act as a talent magnet while aligning discipline development with the province’s growth priorities.
HNU has established a comprehensive system integrating talent introduction and cultivation. Since April 13, 2018, the university has recruited 2,086 PhD-level professionals, with the number of national-level professionals increasing from 5 to 83, including 42 trained in-house. Among its 3,138 full-time faculty members, 2,217 hold PhD degrees, accounting for 70.7%. In five teaching units, the percentage of PhD holders has reached 100%.
To retain and fully leverage talent, HNU has pioneered diverse recruitment models, including the International Young Scholars Forum, Distinguished Talent Fairs, and Global Talent Live Sessions. The university also practices “team-based recruitment,” attracting experts who bring projects, teams, and research outputs aligned with the priorities of the seven collaborative innovation centers. Meanwhile, initiatives such as the HNU Distinguished Scholars Program and the U35/U40 Faculty Innovation Support Scheme nurture long-term talent growth, fostering high-caliber teams in key fields such as seed breeding, tropical ocean studies, Free Trade Port law, and digital intelligence. Together, these measures provide a strong talent foundation for advancing the Free Trade Port.
Tackling Key Scientific Challenges: Seven Collaborative Innovation Centers Leading the Way
The internationally leading Pico Electron Microscopy Center, established by the Marine Material Performance and Microstructure Regulation Team, specializes in electron microscopy technology and material microcharacterization. It has achieved breakthroughs in atomic imaging methods for electron microscopy and microstructure measurement of high-performance aluminum alloys. Employing advanced quantitative atomic imaging technology, the center has successfully determined the structure of individual nanoscale atomic nucleus clusters in aluminum alloys for the first time, unveiling the mechanism underlying dynamic phase transitions in automotive aluminum alloys. This achievement epitomizes the university’s “organized research” efforts in serving the Hainan Free Trade Port. The Seven Collaborative Innovation Centers focus on Hainan’s unique advantages in climate, deep-sea resources, latitude, and ecology and “five sources of competitiveness”, addressing “bottleneck” challenges across various fields and serving as the “source of innovation” for the Free Trade Port.
The Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanfan Tropical Efficient Agriculture, focusing on seed breeding as a source of competitiveness, comprises 76 teams with 343 researchers, including 10 national-level professionals. The Tropical Cropland Nutrient Recycling and Soil Quality Conservation Team has developed an integrated system for “organic waste fertilizer conversion—soil fertility enhancement—chemical fertilizer reduction”, establishing 5 science and technology demonstration hubs, promoting over 30,000 tons of organic fertilizer with a total area of over 5,000 mu. The Tropical Crop Genomics and Big Data Breeding Team has created a “modular automated seed genotyping system”, which cuts the traditional 10-year breeding cycle in half, providing core technological support for Hainan to build “Nanfan Silicon Valley”.
The Collaborative Innovation Center for Marine Science and Technology, focusing on the sea as a source of competitiveness, currently comprises 99 teams with 419 researchers, including 18 national-level professionals. The palladium nanocatalyst developed by the Marine Clean Energy Innovation Team achieved 99.7% methane-to-methanol selectivity under low-temperature conditions, providing an independently patented technical solution for in-situ utilization of China’s combustible ice resources. The Environmental Chemistry and Marine Energy Materials Team successfully extracted and produced hectogram-scale high-purity “yellowcake” uranium through field marine trials. By employing self-developed ladder-shaped dual-site protein uranyl coordination adsorbent, the team achieved a uranium adsorption capacity of 25.6 mg/g in natural seawater, setting a new world record for uranium extraction adsorbents in the 3D material system.
The Collaborative Innovation Center for Information Technology, focusing on the sky and digital technology as sources of competitiveness, comprises 43 teams with 206 researchers, including 13 national-level professionals. The Precision Detection and Intelligent Information Processing Team has made breakthroughs in addressing the scientific challenges of detecting low-altitude, small, and slow (LSS) targets under conditions of low signal-to-noise ratio, limited samples, and coupled errors. The MIMO radar parameter estimation technology developed by the team has been recognized by the National Natural Science Foundation of China as a representative achievement and has been successfully applied in fields such as vehicle-road-cloud integrated smart transportation systems. The Unmanned Intelligent System Team proposed a dual-vessel multidimensional cooperative shared ballast water treatment method and developed air-sea coordination technology, achieving efficient collaborative operations between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vessels (USVs).
The Collaborative Innovation Center for Ecological Civilization, focusing on green energy as a source of competitiveness, comprises 69 teams with 282 researchers, including 17 national-level professionals. It primarily supports the construction of national pilot zone for ecological conservation. The Renewable Energy Optoelectronic Materials and Devices Innovation Research Team independently developed perovskite solar cells that set a world record for steady-state photoelectric conversion efficiency. The Hainan One Health International Research Institute undertook a World Bank loan project to provide services and technological support for ensuring biosecurity in the Hainan Free Trade Port, contributing to global public health governance.
The Collaborative Innovation Center for One Health currently comprises 66 teams with 238 members, including 15 national-level professionals. The Brain Spatial Informatics Research Team successfully mapped a 3D brain atlas and stereotaxic coordinates for mice, achieving precise brain mapping and providing a critical tool for unraveling the mysteries of brain science. Their findings were published in Nature. The release of self-developed core technologies and a series of products for implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCI) by the Brain-Computer Chip Neural Engineering Team marks China’s achievement of full-chain independent technological control in this field. The Tropical Health Food Biomanufacturing Team traveled through Hainan, including remote Li ethnic villages to thoroughly explore the indigenous microbial resources. They isolated and screened probiotic strains that are better suited to the intestinal characteristics of the Chinese population and possess well-defined health benefits, bringing laboratory achievements to benefit the public.
The Collaborative Innovation Center for FTP Development and Institutional Innovation comprises 42 teams with 182 members, including 5 national-level professionals. The Legal System Innovation Research Team played an in-depth role in the deliberation and drafting of Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Hainan Free Trade Port and led the formulation of 25 supporting regulatory drafts, including Regulations of the Hainan Free Trade Port on Optimizing the Business Environment and Several Provisions of the Hainan Free Trade Port on Promoting the Development of Private Economy, covering areas such as business environment, credit system, and fair competition, and participated in the entire legislative process. The Regional Coordinated Development and Policy Research Team, commissioned by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and other ministries, conducted third-party evaluations of core policies, such as Catalogue of Encouraged Industries in the Hainan Free Trade Port (Rev 2024) and “Zero-Tariff” Policy for Hainan FTP-Imported Drugs and Medical Devices. These evaluation results have been adopted and translated into substantive institutional arrangements, providing strong support for institutional innovation and policy implementation in the Hainan Free Trade Port.
The Collaborative Innovation Center for Culture and Tourism brings together 164 members across 40 teams, including three national-level professionals. The Institutional Integration Innovation for High-Quality Tourism Development Research Team proposed a “Work in Peak Seasons, Study in Off-seasons” model to address Hainan’s tourism industry’s “tidal” talent shortage. This approach combines practical work during peak seasons with training during off-seasons, effectively alleviating the imbalance between talent supply and demand. The model was selected as one of the first batch of institutional innovation cases for the Hainan Free Trade Port in 2020 and won the second prize of the National Teaching Achievement Awards in 2022. The team further proposed a teaching concept of “Dual-cross Integration” and constructed a new training system covering “knowledge, ability and quality”, which was recognized by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce and promoted nationwide. The center has also participated in cultural and tourism planning and standard development, leading the drafting of 22 tourism development plans and standards. Among them, two group standards, Guidelines for Course Design of Study Tour and Practical Activities and Safety Management Guidelines for Study Tour and Practical Activities, developed by the Marine and Island Tourism Research Team, were officially released in 2025.
Empowerment through Transformation: From Intellectual Strength to Practical Application
Faculty members in Hainan University not only advance research in laboratories and seminar rooms but also extend their achievements beyond the “ivory tower”. Through technological transfer, intellectual support, and rural revitalization, they offer all-round empowerment for Hainan’s development, turning “paper projects” into “practical profits”.
In commercializing scientific and technological achievements, the university has pioneered reform breakthroughs in Hainan. It took the lead in exploring the “separate management system for institutional scientific and technological achievements” and the reform of vesting 100% ownership of such achievements to researchers. It also innovated the “Buy Now, Pay Later” Model: the nucleic acid and small-molecule antiviral drug research team successfully applied this model to achieve a technology transfer worth over 10 million yuan in an enterprise at the University Science Park, solving “affordability gap” for small and medium-sized enterprises. Additionally, the university has established a due diligence exemption mechanism and negative list for achievement commercialization, and built a “1+2+X” social service network. This network centers on the University Science Park (with 5,000 sq. meters operational, housing 44 enterprises－89% tech-based), supported by 8 university-local R&D platforms including the Sanya Research Institute and the Taling Research Institute as regional fulcrums, and 26 modern industrial technology systems (6 national-level systems and 12 provincial-level systems) as industrial chains. Among them, the Sanya Research Institute has incubated 124 technology-based enterprises (including 1 national “little giant” enterprise and 19 national high-tech enterprises), with annual revenue exceeding 380 million yuan; the Taling Research Institute facilitated the launch of a direct shipping route for coconut imports from Indonesia to Hainan, recognized as a model of “government-research-enterprise” collaboration for the Free Trade Port and endorsed by provincial leaders for promotion; the Baoting Research Institute helped Baoting Li and Miao Autonomous County achieve the province’s fastest growth in technology contract registration, and secured national geographical indication status for“Baoting Rambutan”. Since 2018, the university has deployed 172 scientific research achievements in Hainan, totaling 320 million yuan. Notably, the marine-derived Class I innovative drug for Alzheimer’s disease developed by the South China Sea Oceanology Innovative Drug Research Team was licensed to a listed company for 200 million yuan.It has also solved over 1,000 technical issues for local enterprises, driving over 14 billion yuan in economic benefits.
In intellectual support, the university has served as a “think tank” for the Free Trade Port. Over the past five years, it has submitted more than 830 policy advisory reports, with 527 adopted (including 11 endorsed by state leaders and 114 by provincial-level chiefs). 335 core recommendations have been implemented. Beyond contributing to Free Trade Port legislation, it has delivered 237 high-quality training programs for grass-roots cadres, professional and technical talents, and rural revitalization leaders, covering 17,000 participants. It has drafted 74 local plans, including the Sanya Construction of International Tourist Resort Plan (2022-2035), which has been put into implementation. Classification and Evaluation of Seafood Catering Star Rating and Hotel Reception Specifications for Boao Forum for Asia have been selected as excellent local tourism standards by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
In rural revitalization, the university he university has truly “grounded its research in the soil of Hainan”. It has established 97 technology hubs, accounting for 71.3% of the provincial total and covering all 18 cities and counties across Hainan. Four of these have been honored as “Most Beautiful Science and Technology Backyards” by the China Rural Special Technology Association. In Danzhou, 28 “Doctor Village Chief Teams” comprising 104 doctoral researchers serve 16 towns, attracting five enterprises, bringing in investment totaling 147 million yuan, and creating 1,300 jobs. In seven villages in Dongfang and Lingao, appointed first secretaries have driven forward industrial projects such as orchid cultivation, colorful peanut farming, and crocodile breeding — shifting the paradigm from “assistance-based support” to “self-sustaining development”. For seven consecutive years, the university has received the highest rating of “Excellent” in rural revitalization evaluations.
Cultural Empowerment: From Local Narratives to Global Reach
As a premier hub for cultural heritage and innovation in Hainan, the university leverages its Collaborative Innovation Center for Culture and Tourism, driven by the “twin engines” of “research and dissemination”. It is committed not only to delving deeply into the cultural essence of Hainan but also to promoting its culture to “go global”.
The Translation Theory and Communication Team published the 20-volume A Complete Edition of Juyi Bai’s Poems in Chinese and English, introducing Chinese literary classics to the world. The Genglubu (Historical Nautical Charts) and South China Sea Historical Documents Research Team compiled the 28-volume Complete Works of Genglubu, which systematically organizes historical records and lays a solid foundation for South China Sea studies. The head of the Ritual Studies and East Asian Civilization Research Team served as a keynote speaker on CCTV’s Lecture Room, presenting the series A Dream of Splendor in the Song Dynasty, which offers vivid interpretations of Chinese ritual and musical traditions to a nationwide audience of millions. Operating under the university, the Dongpo Cultural Research and Communication Center of Hainan Province carries out its mission to “inheriting heritage, activating value, and connecting globally” by advancing cultural innovation and dissemination in a systematic manner. In 2023, it co-hosted the “Dongpo Cultural Creative Product Design Competition and Work Exhibition”, which attracted 1,886 submissions from 175 universities and institutions worldwide. Selected entries were produced and toured, fostering integration across cultural, tourism, and food industries. The same year saw the inauguration of the “1st Dongpo Culture International High-end Forum” , which brought together over 200 scholars from Harvard, Cambridge, and other institutions worldwide for dialogues in Hainan. In 2024, the “Dongpo Virtual Experimental Class” was established, enrolling its first cohort of 30 undergraduate students to systematically train future talents in cultural transmission.
These accomplishments have not only revitalized fine traditional Chinese culture but also significantly raised the international profile of Hainan’s culture. Through platforms such as the “League of Tropical Universities” and “Confucius Institutes”, the university incorporates Dongpo culture, South China Sea culture, and Li & Miao ethnic cultures into international exchanges, attracting growing numbers of global scholars and friends to get to know and visit Hainan — thereby providing cultural support for the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
With a piece of chalk tied to the nation’s future, and a devoted heart shining over the southern frontiers — at this critical juncture of customs closure and expanded opening-up in the Hainan Free Trade Port — the faculty of Hainan University perseveres on the front lines of talent cultivation, scientific and technological innovation, and social service. With a selfless mindset that does not claim credit, and a steadfast commitment to contributing to success, they work tirelessly to build a dual foundation of “talent and disciplines”, tackle scientific challenges through seven collaborative innovation centers, empower industrial upgrading through technology transformation, and shape cultural narratives that tell Hainan’s story well. Through these concrete actions, they exemplify what it means to be “Qualified Teachers” with firm ideals and beliefs, moral sentiment, solid knowledge, and benevolence, making “Serving Hainan” the university’s defining mission.
