On March 4-8, Prof. Mei Xurong, Vice president of CAAS and his delegation paid a visit to a number of Montpellier-based Research Institutes in France, including CGIAR headquarter, Montpellier University, French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) and the National Institute of Research and Development (IRD). A series of consensus for onward collaborations has been reached, focusing on the areas of greenhouse-gas emission, food security, sustainable environment development, etc.

At CGIAR, Prof. Mei had a discussion with the Executive Director and CRP project managers, and the two sides have agreed on a couple of key issues such as co-organizing the 6th GLAST, signing the general agreement, inviting a high-level CG delegation to visit China and sending young experts to CGIAR.

At Montpellier University, the delegation attended the First International Advisory Board Meeting of MUSE, a cross-national research alliance initiated by Montpellier University, and provided constructive ideas and suggestions as the international board member. meanwhile, Prof. Mei and President of Montpellier University signed the MoU between CAAS and MUSE, marking the establishment of a strategic partnership between CAAS and the 19 MUSE member units.

During the visit to CIRAD, CNRS and IRD, the delegation had in-depth discussions with Vice-President of CIRAD as well as leaders of CIRAD research departments, the two parties agreed to move forward the collaboration in the fields of subtropical crop breeding, plant pathology and animal epidemic disease prevention and control. The delegation also visited AGAP, a joint genotyping platform run by CIRAD and INRA and Montpellier SupAgro; Ecotrons, the Climate Change Impact Monitoring Platform of CNRS; as well as the “Ecology-Soil” joint research program of IRD, fruitful research potentials has been developed during the visiting.

This visit is of great significance as a concrete action to implement the 6th China-France high-level economic and financial dialogue in 2018,  and also further promotes the Sino-French S&T cooperation.

By Sun Shitao (Sunshitao@caas.cn)