2013 Academic Symposium on Digestive Disease, co-organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Department of Health Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), was held from 22 to 25October 2013.　Guests officiated at the opening ceremony included Prof. Joseph Sung, Vice-Chancellor of CUHK; Mr. Li Lu, Director General, Department of Educational, Scientific and Technological Affairs, Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in HKSAR; Prof. Xiong Xiaoyun, Deputy Director of Department of Information Science of NSFC; and Mr. Kwok Ming Wa, Vice President of Beijing-Hong Kong Academic Exchange Centre.

About one hundred leading scholars and postgraduate students from the mainland and Hong Kong in the field of digestive disease attended the Symposium and 26 talks were delivered. Academician Prof. Li Lanjuan, Director of the State Key Laboratory for Infectious Diseases Diagnosis and Treatment; and Prof. Joesph Sung, Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, gave keynote speeches on the first day of the Symposium.

Scientists and scholars participating in the Symposium met with Prof. Francis Chan, Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Justin Wu and Prof. Philip Chiu, Associate Deans of Medicine, Prof. Henry Chan, Prof. Yu Jun, Ng Siew Chien and Prof. Wong Wai Sun of the Institute of Digestive Disease, as well as academic members from the School of Biomedical Sciences of CUHK. Visits were paid to relevant research facilities in the University to learn more about the latest research developments. The representatives from both sides used the opportunity to exchange ideas and build up links. 

The Symposium provided a platform for exchange of expertise and research progress in digestive disease. It also served the purpose of fostering dynamic academic exchange and research collaboration among the scientists from mainland China and Hong Kong. For official website of the Symposium, please refer to http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/oalc/nsfc2013/.

Since 2007, CUHK and NSFC have co-organized annual academic symposium with different themes. Previous topics included Bio-informatics and Its Applications, Chemical Biology, Condensed Matter and Optical Physics, Developmental Studies in Health and Diseases, Control and Automation; and Climate Change. For previous Symposiums, please visit http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/oalc/en/act/sem.htm