University attracts global talent with benefits policy

Harbin Engineering University is intensifying its "strengthening the university with talent" strategy, establishing a new recruitment pattern through an open framework, precise cultivation systems and heartwarming retention policies.

In recent years, the university has been attracting high-level talent from around the world to work in the fields of natural sciences and engineering technology. Earlier this year, the university issued a global recruitment notice, extending an open invitation to outstanding young scholars to join its faculty.

To attract candidates, the university introduced high-standard support policies. Selected candidates will receive regular faculty positions and be directly appointed as professors and doctoral supervisors. They will receive annual salaries supplemented by research performance and key achievement bonuses.

For living arrangements, the university offers housing subsidies and provides educational resources from kindergarten to junior high school for children of faculty. Selected candidates can access provincial talent benefits in 12 areas, including household registration, entry and exit, as well as medical care.

Additionally, the university prioritizes support measures such as building "small and beautiful" cross-disciplinary innovation teams and providing office and laboratory space.

The university is also recruiting distinguished leading talent, outstanding scholars and young top talent globally across multiple academic directions, including shipbuilding, artificial intelligence and underwater acoustics. Research bases have been established in the provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu and Hainan to offer diverse work choices.

Through the Xinghai Forum — a recruitment brand established by the university — the institution has successfully expanded its reach. The 10th forum in 2025 attracted nearly 4,000 scholars from home and abroad.

Last year, the proportion of the university's newly recruited teachers with overseas academic backgrounds exceeded 40 percent for the first time. The university's overseas recruitment network now covers regions such as Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Professor Zhang Zhongping, who was recruited from an overseas institution, joined the university's College of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering in 2024.

"With support from both the university and the college, I successfully became qualified to supervise doctoral and master's students, started mentoring students and began building a research team," said Zhang, 32. "I have transitioned from an individual contributor to a faculty member, balancing teaching and research."

Zhang leads research in AI security and trustworthiness, with applications supporting maritime navigation safety, as well as search and rescue operations.

"About nine months before graduating with my doctorate, I began systematically paying attention to the recruitment policies for young talent at domestic universities while considering my future career path," he said.

During that process, he discovered Harbin Engineering University.

"My research has always focused on artificial intelligence, multimodal content understanding and generation, and machine-generated content detection," Zhang said. "Harbin Engineering University has a distinct engineering background and strong industry characteristics, making it a suitable platform for AI research to further advance toward cross-disciplinary integration and engineering applications."

He noted that the environment allows him to combine previous research with practical future needs. In Zhang's view, the university considers how young faculty can quickly integrate into teams and adapt to the pace of research.

The university's talent development has resulted in several high-level recognitions, including the National Huang Danian-style College Teacher Teams, the Feng Ru Science and Technology Award and the China Youth May Fourth Medal Collectives.

Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn