On Tuesday, October 23, a 4-person delegation from University College Dublin (UCD) led by Professor Dolores O’Riordan, Vice President for Global Engagement visited Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GSCAAS). Dr. Gong Xifeng, Director General of Department of International Cooperation of CAAS met with the delegates. Prof. Luo Changfu, Vice President of GSCAAS attended the meeting.

At first, Dr. Gong extended a warm welcome to the delegates and briefed the delegates about the basic information, research achievements, international cooperation and international education of the CAAS. He said, 2018 was a milestone for the partnership between UCD and GSCAAS, as two delegations had been sent to UCD from CAAS and an agreement on joint PhD program was reached between UCD and GSCAAS. CAAS had been prioritizing the field that can work with UCD, hoping to initiate the cooperation as soon as possible, and successfully identified that animal science, food science and nutrition are the fields that we can start the collaboration.

Professor Dolores O’Riordan expressed her gratitude to Dr. Gong’s hospitality. She then briefly introduced UCD, its strategic plan and its strong disciplines. She pointed out that UCD ranked No. 1 in terms of citation in the field of animal reproduction and food science. And she believed that initiate the cooperation with CAAS in the field of food science and nutrition would be a win-win strategy.

Dr. Gong then proposed that next year CAAS would organize a team of scientists to visit UCD and have seminars to provide a platform for scientists from both institutions. He added, it would be a great starting point for UCD and CAAS to collaborate.

Professor Luo Changfu then briefed the delegates of the progress of the application of joint PhD programs to Ministry of Education (MOE). He said, since the visit to UCD in March, great efforts from both parties had been made for the application. He also said that GSCAAS regarded UCD as an important strategic partner and GSCAAS was willing to strengthen the cooperation with UCD in more aspects such as faculty & students exchange and personnel training.

At the end of the meeting, consensus was made on holding an international seminar in 2019, bring together the best scientists from both institutions to work on the common interest areas.

Leaders from Institute of Food and Nutrition Development, Ministry of Agriculture and staff from Department of International Cooperation also attended the meeting.

By Zhang Chun
zhangchun@caas.cn