“There may be some opportunity for these partnerships to help Michigan’s economy out of competitive research to some of the frontiers of the bioeconomy, not just biofuels,” he said.

Leaders from the Chinese universities toured MSU as part of a workshop with MSU and the University Research Corridor, or URC.

The Michigan-China Leadership Forum was a chance for university administrators to talk with the Chinese leaders about the challenges of leading a university, Riedinger said.

“China has an explosion in the number of students who want a university education,” he said. “So they are increasing the number of students at existing universities and there is a move to create new universities. That puts pressure on them, similar to the pressure on the U.S. to create the next senior leaders of a university.”

The forum was one of the first opportunities for the Chinese officials, representing 18 top universities, to visit a land-grant university.

“They were struck by the land-grant model,” Riedinger said.

The forum was set up by the University of Michigan, which held previous forums with Chinese universities. This time they were asked to show how the URC works together.

“These three universities are global universities,” said Constance Cook, U-M’s associate vice provost for academic affairs. “They interact with universities around the world routinely. This is a chance to improve ties with the Chinese.”

It also was an opportunity to increase the visibility of the URC overseas.

“Certainly they know about the Research Triangle in North Carolina and the corridor outside of Boston,” Riedinger said. “This can put us on the map. Hundreds and hundreds of dollars in research come into the state each year.”

The increased focus on Chinese economic hot spots could eventually help Michigan’s economy too, Cook said.

“We’re trying to attract foreign capital and foreign companies to Michigan,” she said. “Being able to tell our story to the Chinese is just as important as telling our story to all other countries. These universities are economic engines for their regions in China. They will take our message back with them that Michigan is an attractive place to do business.”