From August 3 to 4, 2026, the Seminar on Safety Engineering Materials & Technologies alongside “the Belt & Road” was successfully held in Hefei, Anhui, China. The seminar was hosted by the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science (SKLFS) of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), with more than 100 experts, scholars, and young researchers from fire safety engineering materials and related fields in countries along “the Belt and Road”, including China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Thailand, participating in the event.

On the morning of August 4, 2026, the opening ceremony of the seminar was held in the auditorium on the second floor of the special experimental laboratory building of the SKLFS. Hu Yuan, the chairperson of the seminar and chair professor at the USTC, presided over the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. Prof. Hu introduced the latest research progress on safety engineering materials and technology in the SKLFS. Prof. Dzmitry Hrynshpan (Belarusian State University, Belarus), Prof. Tatsiana Savitskaya (Belarusian State University, Belarus), Dr. Alesia Zyhmant (Belarusian State University, Belarus), Prof. Rashid Nadirov (Director of Institute of Combustion Problems, Kazakhstan), Dr. Laksamon Raksaksri (Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand), and Prof. Fei Bin (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China) attended the opening ceremony.

During the seminar, eight experts, including Prof. Fei Bin, Prof. Tatsiana Savitskaya, Dr. Alesia Zyhmant, Prof. Rashid Nadirov, Dr. Laksamon Raksaksri, and Prof. Yu Bin, Assoc. Prof. Wang Bibo and Assoc. Prof. Wang Xin from the USTC were invited to deliver keynote speeches. Prof. Fei Bin introduced the cutting-edge progress of environmental photonic energy manipulation using fire‑safe materials. Assoc. Prof. Wang Bibo shared results on the efficient extraction of seawater brine chemical resources and high-performance magnesium-based flame retardant materials. Prof. Tatsiana Savitskaya and Dr. Alesia Zyhmant gave invited presentations on the introduction of the cellulose solution laboratory and the research progress of high value-added materials based on cellulose, respectively. Prof. Yu Bin introduced the progress on flame-retardant polymer networks containing dynamic covalent bonds. Prof. Rashid Nadirov shared the results on reactivity regulation and selective resource recovery from industrial materials. Dr. Laksamon Raksaksri introduced a study on the influence of strontium aluminate additives on the fire safety performance of EPDM composites. Assoc. Prof. Wang Xin shared the progress of intrinsically flame-retardant and low-dielectric polybenzoxazine composites for electronic packaging applications.

This seminar is highly important for promoting academic exchanges among researchers engaged in public safety and materials science in countries along the “Belt & Road” and for sharing the latest research outcomes in safety engineering materials and technologies. The successful organization of this seminar helps to introduce China's research achievements in fire-safe engineering materials to the “Belt & Road” countries, establish a platform for scientific and technological cooperation between SKLFS and these countries in the field of fire-safe engineering materials, and achieve common scientific and technological progress with countries along the “Belt & Road”.