Jiangnan University, in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, comes directly under China’s Ministry of Education. It traces its roots to San Jiang Normal School, founded in 1902, began independent existence in 1958 as Wuxi Institute of Light Industry and took its present name after a 2001 merger. Its Chinese-language leadership page lists Li Jian as President.
Agri-food research centres on the School of Food Science and Technology, whose discipline dates from the Department of Food Technology of Nanjing Institute of Technology, founded in 1952. The school says it has 274 full-time teachers and more than 3,200 students, and organises research in food nutrition and health food manufacturing, food processing and intelligent manufacturing, and food safety and quality control. National platforms named on the English site include the State Key Lab of Food Science and Technology and the National Engineering Research Center of Functional Food.
The university reports cooperation with companies including China Resources, COFCO and Bright Dairy; the school lists graduate recruitment links with Nestlé, Cargill and Yihai Kerry, among others.