SHANGHAI Normal University launched a worldwide search yesterday for top academic brains to boost its research and development program.

Yesterday the university began the hunt for 10 leading academics including specialists in the fields of literature, history, philosophy, computer-based mathematics and teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

The university is looking for scholars who are under the age of 45, hold a PhD degree and have "widely recognized" academic achievements.

The candidates who are chosen will be given a five-year work contract, a minimum yearly salary of 350,000 yuan (US$46,605) or a housing subsidy of 800,000 yuan.

The university can also provide research funding ranging from 500,000 yuan to 1.5 million yuan, as well as research equipment and staff, to the selected candidates.

Lu Jianfei, the university's vice president, said that the drive was intended to solve the problem of aging leading faculty members.

"We know that a high level faculty team is the core to a university's development. But here the problem is we have a number of elite professors reaching the age of retirement yet only few young successors who can match them," Lu said.