1. Project BackgroundIn September 2015, Vice Premier Liu Yandong attended the China-UK Symposium on Science and Technology Innovationin the United Kingdom, and also visited the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. She expressed that “both Chinese and British sides should deepen bilateral cooperationin the large-scale science and technology infrastructures.” In October, Vice Mayor Zhang Ke, Dongguan Municipal Committee, led a delegation to investigate the construction and application of the spallation neutron source facility in UK. In an effort to promote local economic and social development, he invited the principle scientist, Professor Zhang Shuyan from the Engineering Laboratory of the UK ISIS Spallation Neutron Source and her team to expand the industrial applications of scientific apparatus in China.Professor Zhang Shuyan’s team investigated the construction and application of the China Spallation Neutron Source, the status quo of the research on neutron application technologies and stress engineering, and also took into consideration the needs of the Chinese economy and the national defense development. In March 2016, the Centre of Excellence for Advanced Materials (CEAM) was established in Dongguan, Guangdong, with the total investment of 550 million RMB and a five-year construction period.2. Project OverviewCEAM focuses on the breakthrough of the bottlenecks that restrict materials and the equipment manufacturing process. We adopt an innovative approach – prediction & optimization - to carry out an in-depth study on the critical mechanisms of microstructure and mechanical properties of materials, and combine the multiscale simulations with experimental measurements to investigate the preparation process, the service environment and stress state of materials. We employ the neutron technologies as the core, combined with other techniques, to guide and optimize the manufacturing process of materials and equipment, and to significantly shorten the cycle of materials research and equipment manufacturing, filling the gaps in the research field of stress measurement by neutron technologies.By undertaking the major national and international scientific and technological innovation projects, participating in the development of the international standards for neutron application and stress measurement, promoting scientific research achievements and high-tech industry incubation, and cultivating the professional and technical personnel in stress measurement and research, we are aiming to steadily build on our reputation as The National Team in the field of neutron engineering application technology innovation, and to become a world class international Stress Engineering Center by offering the highest measurement techniques diversity, the largest possible sample size and the deepest measurement depth.Through launching the deep cooperation and exploring the market together with the industrial partners during our construction period, we do believe that we can continuously obtain a great achievement at R&D. Learning from the successful foreign industrialization experience of neutron engineering applications, the Institute will be committed to the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and industrial incubation, promoting the foundation and fast developmentof high-tech enterprises in new materials, high-tech equipment and the key core components manufacturing. Therefore, an annual output value of ten billion scale high-tech industry clusters based on the neutron engineering applications will be formed.