On May 25, 2011, “Milan-Shanghai Weekly Creative Industry Forum” held in Milan, Italy, Jiabo (president of DOBE) and Giovanni Luigi Fontana （head of history department in University of Padova, Italy）signed a strategic cooperation agreement officially. The successful completion of signing ceremony marks that both sides have opened a new page in production, study and research in some fields such as value-added industrial heritage and urban regeneration.
University of Padova was established in 1222, which is the third oldest university in Europe. It has a long history and rich cultural heritage, where Galileo and Dante had taught for a long time. University of Padova has high prestige in the cultural field, especially in the research on protection and value adding of cultural heritage and industrial heritage.
Both sides primarily focused their attention on combination of production, study and research at the earlier stage of cooperation. University of Padova will select and dispatch excellent students to DOBE for practice of 1-2 months, who will actively participate in DOBE’s theoretical researches and practices, contributing to in-depth exchange of China and Italy in the fields of cultural and creative industry development and urban renewal. In the future, DOBE will set up special scholarships at the University of Padova, offering assistance for research on Chinese cultural and creative industries and value adding of industrial heritage, expanding China's international influence in these fields.
According to the agreement, Polytechnic University of Milan, which enjoys high reputation in the fashion design field, has reached the co-operation intention with DOBE and will join in the co-operation framework. Gradually, this framework will cover other well-known universities in Europe, such as University of Turin, University of Paris.
