The School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University is a benchmark department for party building in universities across China. Established in November 2011, the School was newly established jointly by the State Oceanic Administration and the Ningbo Municipal Government for the maritime-related disciplines at Ningbo University. Formerly known as the School of Life Sciences and Bioengineering, the School was merged with the Department of Aquaculture, Zhejiang Ocean University, and the Department of Biology, Ningbo Normal University, and has enjoyed a history of over 60 years to date. The School has never forgotten its original intention and mission, closely focused on the national blue granary and rural revitalization strategy, adhered to the leadership of party building featuring the dual integration and promotion of “party building+disciplines”, and continuously refined the characteristics of disciplines to realize high-quality development.
The School's existing majors, such as aquaculture and biotechnology, have been recognized as national first-class undergraduate program construction sites. Currently, the School has first-level discipline doctoral programs in aquaculture and biology, master's degree programs in agriculture, and a complete high-level talent training system for undergraduates, masters, and doctoral programs. In 2022, the discipline of aquaculture ranked third among the best disciplines in soft sciences in China nationwide and, in the new round of subject selection, it is recommended to apply aquaculture as the Zhejiang Peak Discipline, and biology as the first-class discipline A in Zhejiang Province and concurrently as Ningbo Peak Discipline. The School helped three newly added disciplines, including environment and ecology, biology and biochemistry, toxicology, and pathology, rank the top 1% of global ESI (currently 5 disciplines among the top 1% of global ESI).
Approved to construct the Key Laboratory for Green Seawater Aquaculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (provincially and ministerially co-constructed) in 2022, the School currently has 13 national, provincial, and municipal major scientific research platforms such as the “National Joint Laboratory for Marine Biotechnology and Engineering”, which is also selected as a national technical-support specialized platform for aquaculture seed industry enterprises.
The School has 165 faculty members, including 42 with senior professional titles, 55 with associate senior professional titles, 126 with a doctorate, 41 Ph.D. supervisors, and 82 master supervisors. Furthermore, the School has one full-time academician, one shared academician, and two members entitled to State Council special allowance, a recipient of the “National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars” and “China Youth Science and Technology Award”, a member of the Aquatic Discipline Evaluation Group under the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, and one member of the National Steering Committee of Agricultural Graduate Education, three scientific experts holding the Ministry of Agriculture positions, and 26 provincial-level “151” program talents. Four teachers are participating in overseas continuing education, and over 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students are in the School.
In 2022, the School won one second prize in the Graduate Teaching Achievement Award of Zhejiang Province, one special prize in the Practice Teaching Achievement Award of the National Steering Committee of Agricultural Graduate Education, and one paper nominated for the "Provincial Excellent Doctoral Dissertation" and two papers for the "Provincial Excellent Master's Dissertation”. In addition, the School obtained 3 first-class online courses in Zhejiang Province, 2 textbooks for the 14th Five-Year Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and 2 provincial planning textbooks for the 14th Five-Year Plan; harvested 10 projects from the first batch of University-Industry Collaborative Education Program under the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education in 2022, one planning projects of higher education scientific research and planning program under China Association of Higher Education, one project under Five Batch Industry-university Cooperation and Education Program of Zhejiang Province, and 2 provincial-level “14th Five-Year Plan” teaching reform projects. In addition, the School has been approved to undertake one-party building programs under the “Planning Project of Higher Education Scientific Research and Planning Program in 2022” under the China Association of Higher Education and the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project (University Counselor Programs) of the Ministry of Education, as well as one school-level “Party Building Pilot Program”.
In 2022, the School received 87 scientific research project grants with a total funding amount of RMB 35.09 million, including 15 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, covering 9 general programs and 6 youth fund programs. Also, it gained 48 projects or plans at various levels relating to diversified types of public welfare research and development and 24 research projects, with a funding amount of RMB 9.611 million. The allocated funding for scientific research projects is RMB 42.95 million, including RMB 36.878 million for government funded projects and RMB 6.072 million for non-government funded projects. The School has also received the Outstanding Achievement Award for Research in Higher Education Institutions. The teachers have publicly published 274 papers, including 238 SCI papers and 23 in domestic first-class core journals. Graduate students have published 189 papers, of which 164 are SCI papers; undergraduate students have published 13 papers, of which 8 are SCI papers. Furthermore, four papers are ESI highly cited and 52 authorized patents have been obtained.
In 2022, the School’s students have undertaken 10 national Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Programs, 7 Zhejiang New Talent Programs, 2 general research projects (graduate projects) from the Zhejiang Department of Education, 23 SRIP campus-level research projects of Ningbo University, and 18 Graduate Research and Innovation Fund projects of Ningbo University. Furthermore, the School won 4 gold prizes and one bronze prize in the 8th China International “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, one Best Employment Promotion Award (2 nationwide), 10 awards in the 8th International “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in Zhejiang, and 4 awards in the 13th “Challenge Cup” Entrepreneurship Plan Competition of Zhejiang Province.
In 2022, the School won several honors. The project “Crab settling down by the Yellow River, saline-alkali barren soil turning into fertile land” was selected as an excellent case in the “Global Solicitation on Best Poverty Reduction Practices”, and also won 4 gold prizes in the 8th National “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. The aquatic animal breeding teacher team was awarded the title of Huang Danian-style Faculty Team, and the marine biotechnology teaching team was awarded the title of provincial demonstration grassroots teaching organization; Mu Changkao and Shao Yina were selected as the recommended candidates in the second batch of “University Leading Talents Training Program in Zhejiang”; Counselor Chen Chen won the first prize in the Ideological and Political Micro-course Competition Among Universities in Zhejiang Province, and counselor Shi Hongshuai won the third prize in the essay solicitation competition themed learning Speech Spirit and Cultivating New People of the Times of Zhejiang Province; Xie Binglei was awarded the title of “Ningbo Excellent Ideological and Political Worker in Universities”, Wang Tengfei was named “Ningbo Excellent Counselor in Universities”, and Shi Xizhi was named “Ningbo Excellent Curriculum Ideological and Political Teacher in Universities”. Dr. Lu Jiaqi was selected as a typical entrepreneurial figure among university students in Zhejiang Province in the 2022 “Vigor of Youth in Zhejiang” campaign. Ji Xinping was named “Outstanding Student” of universities in Ningbo in 2022, Wu Minnan was named “Students As Encouragement Pacesetter” of universities in Ningbo in 2022, and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Federation of School of Marine Sciences was awarded the title of “Advanced Student Collective” of universities in Ningbo in 2022.
(Based on the data statistics by December 2022)
