Group photo of the SAIFS's Board of Council
On April 11th, the third plenary meeting of the first Board of Council of SAIFS at ECNU was successfully held in SAIFS Research Center, located in Xuhui District’s “Mosu Space” – a national innovation hub for AI. During the meeting, Professor Qian Xuhong, President of ECNU and Chair of SAIFS’s Board of Council, and Professor Meng Zhongjie, Vice Chair of ECNU’s Council and Vice Chair of SAIFS’s Board of Council, gave key speeches.
The meeting brought together distinguished university representatives including Professor Tang Yuguang, Secretary-General of the Academic Committee; Professor Ke Zheng, Director of Development Planning Department; Professor Yang Fuyi, Associate Dean of Graduate School; Professor Yang Haibo, Director of Science and Technology Department; Professor Lü Zhifeng, Dean of School of Humanities and Social Sciences; Mrs. Tian Qingfang, Deputy Director of International Cooperation and Exchange Office; Mrs. Zhang Yanan, Director of Talent Office, Human Resources Department; Mrs. Cao Fang, Deputy Director of Finance Department; Professor Zhang Guixu, Dean of the School of Computer Science and Technology; Professor Pan Liang, Chair of the School of Politics and International Relationship; Professor Yue Hua, Chair of the Council of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) and Professor Wu Wenyu, Vice Chair of the Council of SEM. The meeting was moderated by Professor Tang Aocheng, Assistant to the Dean at SAIFS.
Professor Yue Hua delivered a speech
Professor Yue Hua, the Chair of the Council of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) and a SAIFS's Council member, extended her sincere gratitude on behalf of SEM to the university leadership, functional departments, and peer schools for their long-standing support. She expressed her respect to Dean Shao Yilei and colleagues for pioneering in the AI-Finance fields. She emphasized that the establishment and development of SAIFS represent ECNU’s proactive alignment with national strategies and services for Shanghai’s global fintech center construction, while also serving as SEM’s crucial practice in deepening “New Liberal Arts” reform and advancing interdisciplinary integration.
During the meeting, Professor Yue Hua mentioned that within less than a year since its establishment, SAIFS has achieved remarkable phased outcomes: creating China’s first AI-Finance Research Center; establishing the first FinLLM lab in China with independent intellectual property rights; securing major university-enterprise and university-local cooperation projects with Agricultural Bank of China and Xuhui District government; and obtaining recognition as Xuhui District’s second batch of high-quality incubators for SAIFS Research Center and SAIFS Innovation Center. Early this year, the school also signed an MOU with United Nations University to co-establish the world’s first and China’s exclusive "UNU-ECNU Joint Research Center in AI-Finance.” Moving forward, SEM will deepen collaborative innovation mechanisms across three dimensions - “discipline-industry”, “local-global”, and “institutional-cultural” - working with SAIFS to build new interdisciplinary platforms, cultivate innovative ecosystems and cultural atmosphere, and promote the integrated development of education, technology, and talent in AI-Finance fields.
Dean Shao Yilei elaborated on recent work at SAIFS
SAIFS Dean Shao Yilei, Executive Chair of the Council, elaborated on recent work at SAIFS in talent echelon development, disciplinary strategic planning, and government-industry-academia-research-application collaboration. She emphasized that the school has continuously optimized its faculty structure through the introduction of high-level talent and the cultivation of young talent, aiming to build a high-quality interdisciplinary team with an international vision and practical capabilities. In disciplinary development, SAIFS has systematically deployed strategic research directions, gradually forming distinctive interdisciplinary ecosystems.
In addition, the school actively collaborates with government departments, financial institutions, technology companies, and research institutions to explore deep integration of government, industry, academia, research, and application, promoting the seamless integration of innovation chains, industry chains, and talent chains. In the future, the school will continue to strengthen forward-looking layouts, expand diverse cooperation channels, and continually enhance its influence in the field of AI-Finance, providing strong talent and intellectual support for the construction of Shanghai as a global financial technology center.
Prof. Lü Zhifeng, Prof. Yang Fuyi, Prof. Tang Yuguang, Prof. Ke Zheng, Prof. Yang Haibo
Prof. Pan Liang, Mrs. Cao Fang, Mrs. Tian Qingfang, Mrs. Zhang Yanan, Prof. Zhang Guixu
In the subsequent discussion session, council members had thorough exchanges and in-depth discussions on topics such as talent introduction and training mechanisms, key research direction layouts, deep cooperation models between industry, academia, and research, and long-term mechanisms for university-enterprise cooperation. Based on the actual development of the school and current trends in the field of AI-Finance, they proposed numerous forward-looking and constructive suggestions, providing useful guidance for the school’s future development goals, resource optimization, and enhancement of core competitiveness.
Prof. Meng Zhongjie delivered a speech
In the concluding session of the meeting, Professor Meng Zhongjie, Vice Chair of the Council at ECNU and Vice Chair of the Council at SAIFS, pointed out that the school faces unprecedented challenges during its development, which also raises higher requirements for the university’s various functional departments. There is a need to strengthen coordination, proactive innovation, and action. He fully affirmed the efforts of the SAIFS team in actively exploring and bravely attempting to integrate the fields of AI-Finance, and achieving initial results. At the same time, he emphasized that the prospects for the integration and development of AI-Finance are vast, but further breakthroughs are needed to overcome the constraints of traditional thinking and existing mechanisms. There is a need to actively explore new paths and methods to better respond to the needs of the times and achieve high-quality development for the school.
Prof. Qian Xuhong concluded the meeting
Finally, Professor Qian Xuhong, President of ECNU and Chair of the Council of SAIFS, delivered a concluding speech. He proposed developing SAIFS through “transcending traditional boundaries”, constructing interdisciplinary ecosystems by breaking institutional barriers, and integrating university-wide resources. He advocated establishing effective resource-sharing mechanisms, supporting cross-school talent collaboration through flexible management models featuring “lean core, broad periphery” organizational structures. President Qian stressed the importance of phased management requirements and incentive mechanisms to balance innovation vitality with operational stability, urging SAIFS to maintain distinctive advantages, avoid conventional disciplinary path dependence, and adopt problem-oriented, demand-driven approaches to enhance core competitiveness in AI-Finance innovation.
Before the meeting, Dean Shao Yilei and the research team at SAIFS accompanied all council members on a visit to the SAIFS Research Center and SAIFS Innovation Center, where they gave a detailed introduction to the research institute’s functional planning and future development layout.
The Shanghai AI-Finance School (SAIFS) was officially established in May 2024, aiming to integrate the multidisciplinary advantages of artificial intelligence, financial technology, and economic management to promote interdisciplinary development. In October 2024, the SAIFS Research Center and SAIFS Innovation Center were launched in “Mosu Space” in Xuhui district, where it's recognized as the “world’s largest AI incubator” and China’s first large-model innovation ecosystem community. By December 2024, the SAIFS Innovation Center has been awarded the title of “A High-quality Innovation Center” in the second batch of district-level innovation centers in Xuhui District.
Sources: Shanghai AI-Finance School, ECNU
