Dear friends and members of BRAIA,

Time flies. It has already been more than half a year since the Belt and Road Aerospace Innovation Alliance (BRAIA) was established in April 2017. On behalf of Chinese Society of Astronautics (CSA) andNorthwestern Polytechnical University(NPU), whobothhave initiated BRAIA, and the Permanent Secretariat of BRAIA, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for your efforts and contributions to BRAIA’s development in 2017. It will soon be 2018, please allow us to take this opportunity to wish you a happy new year.

As you know, 48 universities, research institutes and enterprises from Belgium, France, Italy, the USA, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt, and China all joined BRAIA in 2017. More universities have expressed the interest in joining or submitted applications for the admission.

As declared at the BRAIA inauguration ceremony, the mission of the alliance is to create a platform for international cooperation in the field of aerospace technology and its applications. Based on mutual benefit, open exchange of ideas and a common interest in fruitful cooperation and development, the alliance is expected toplay an important role in enhancing international collaboration on scientific research, talent development, knowledge transfer, culture exchange, and promoting the development of its individual members. In view of BRAIA’s major activities and achievements in 2017, we are proud and confident about the future, even if we know that there will be more challenges ahead.

BRAIA believes that people-to-people exchanges always matter the most. Thus BRAIA and its partners organized several exchange activities in 2017. In July, more than 60 university students from countries including Russia, Spain, Australia, Egypt, Belgium, Algeria and China converged on Xi’an to attend the 1st BRAIA Space Camp. From lectures, contests and trainings about aerospace technology and its applications to cultural visits organized by the alliance, participants had a great time.The students were exposed to different cultures, shared their knowledge and experience during their time competing and cooperating. The feedback we received from attendees was that this camp was well worth attending.

In October, the Inaugural BRAIA Young Scholars Workshop was held in Qingdao, a beautiful coastal city in China. More than 80 scholars from Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Pakistan, Algeria, Egypt, and China gathered for the theme of ‘The Young Create the Future of Aerospace,’ carrying out extensive and intensive academic discussions on relevant topics. Delegates believed that the workshop was not only beneficial for their academic development, but also helpful for them to explore further collaboration.

In November, the 2nd Composite Battle World Cup was held at NPU, Xi’an China. The First Composite Battle World Cup was initiated in 2016 by Moscow State University, Bauman Moscow State Technical University and Kazan National Research Technical University. The 2nd Composite Battle World Cup was jointly organized by the BRAIA

and the Association of Sino-Russian Technical Universities (ASRTU). As the permanent secretariat of BRAIA, NPU hosted the competition to promote the development and application of composite technology and products inthe field ofaviation and aerospace. 16 teams from countries including Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus, China, Australia, Egypt, and Burma competed together with a total of nearly 150 participants converging on NPU.

Looking into 2018, we expect BRAIA to develop further in many ways. More members will join BRAIA and make this family bigger. Members will be more active in proposing, planning, organizing, and attending BRAIA activities. More collaboration will take place based on a better understanding among members. We won’t be surprised or stopped if frustrations or even failures occur, since the most important thing is that we all support BRAIA as a platform based on mutual benefits and a common interest in sharing, communicating and cooperating.

There are a few things already on the BRAIA agenda in 2018. In late March, all the contact persons from each member organization are invited to be together in order to get acquainted with each other, to consolidate 2018 BRAIA annual agenda, to share information and discuss the development of BRAIA. More significantly, the BRAIA council meeting is tentatively scheduled for October in Xi’an. At the same time,NPUwill celebrate its 80th anniversary, and BRAIA members are invited to join in the festivitiesin Xi’an, China.

The BRAIA CubeSat Contest,including both the Chinese domestic session and the international session, is planned. Alongside the international session there will be a significant event: Celebration on the10th Anniversaryof APSCO (Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization) and the Forum for Administrators of National Space Agencies. BRAIA and NPU will play an important role inco-organizing this event with APSCO. The event will include a series of lectures, speeches given by experts and senior officials from the UN, national space agencies of APSCO member states, universitiesand other organizations. BRAIA member organizations are invited to attend this event and will have a dedicated parallel session to discuss with others on how to cultivate aerospace talents, and seek for cooperation by introducing relevant courses and programs, student exchange projects, and eventually find this event as a useful cooperation platform to learn urgent needs on human resource and technical solutions from research institutes and enterprises. Furthermore, this event will be immediately followed by a China Microsatellite Symposium. Students and scholars from BRAIA may combine these activities in one trip.

In the summer of 2018, university students from BRAIA member universities will once again be invited and enjoy the 2nd BRAIA Space Camp. More activities are expected to come. Apart from this, BRAIA and CSA will make joint efforts to launch “Go globally—BRAIA International Aerospace Exhibition” outside of China, which focuses on promoting aerospace technology, products, research programs, etc.The eventis initially planned in Q2 and/or Q3 of 2018.

More detailed information about above events is attached in the form “2018 BRAIA Draft Annual Events”, please feel free to let us know your proposals on more desired activities and add them into the form. Next to that, if you’d share the information of activities from your own side, not necessarily organized by BRAIA, but might be relevant or good to share with BRAIA members, please fill it in another form “2018 Activity Information from BRAIA Member Organization” as attached. For instance, we have included the activity information of “NPU x CAP Global Innovation Summer Program 2018” in it, which will be organized by NPU (www.npuchina.org/capsummer). Please feel free to apply for the attendance according to the invitation as attached. Finally, a digital BRAIA contact book is being prepared by us, which will have latest contact information of each contact person from each member organization.Sending your early response and updated info to us before Jan 15th 2018 will be highly appreciated (braia@nwpu.edu.cn).

The last but not the least thing is that BRAIA website (http://braia.nwpu.edu.cn) has recently been launched. This website contains information on alliance activities, news,videos and photos,which is easily sharable. We hope you may find it helpful.

        Wish BRAIA more successesin 2018!

Best regards,

Permanent Secretariat

“Belt and Road” Aerospace Innovation Alliance

Email:braia@nwpu.edu.cn

Address: Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi Xilu, Xi'an 710072 Shaanxi, P. R. China

Telephone: +86-29-88460873

Fax: +86-29-88491544