South China University of Technology (SCUT) is a key and comprehensive research-oriented university under “Project 985” and “Project 211”. Since 1978, SCUT has undertaken over 20,000 scientific research projects, of which 18 are sponsored by National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 67 by Project 973, 145 by Project 863 while 56 titled as Key Programs of National Natural Science Fund and 1300 as General Programs of National Natural Science Fund, with a total amount of nearly 40 billion RMB among these projects. In addition, it has been awarded 638 prizes at provincial level or above, including 48 national awards and 86 provincial or ministerial first prizes. Meanwhile, 11,976 papers have been published on SCIE, EI and ISTP (by the end of 2008). The University has 4041 applied patents, of which 2800 are invention patents and has 2035 authorized patents, of which 948 are invention patents. SCUT has been ranking the top ten among domestic universities and colleges in terms of patent application number and patent authorization number for about 10 years.

The School of Economics and Commerce plays a key role in the research activities of economics, finance, international business, e-commerce, logistics engineering and tourism at SCUT. The University and Guangdong Provincial Banking Regulatory Commission together established “Research Center of Financial Engineering”, which obtained the status of Key Research Base of Guangdong Province in humanities and social sciences. At the same time, the School established a joint research center, “Guangzhou International Tourism Research Center” with Purdue University, USA.

The School attaches great importance to research. In the past three years it has undertaken about 250 research projects in various type, including 11 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation, National Social Science Foundation, 25 projects from Social Science Planning Projects of the Education Ministry, 38 projects from Guangdong Province Science Foundation, Guangdong Province philosophy and social sciences planning project, with 38 million RMB planning funds. The faculty has published over 300 papers, including over 160 papers indexed by EI and SCI, over 100 papers indexed by CSSCI. They also have some patents, books and registered software and other academic research achievements.