Beijing Representative Office of German Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres Established

The foundation ceremony for Beijing Representative Office of Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres was held in Beijing on July 26. Prof. Lu Yongxiang, the president of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Walter Koller, the president of Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres, uncovered the tablet for the Beijing Office together. Prof. Chen Yiyu, the director of National Natural Sciences Foundation of China, and Prof. Lu Yanhua, the vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology attended the ceremony.

Prof. Lu said in his address that CAS and German institutes, universities and enterprises had maintained a very nice scientific cooperative relationship for years. The Institute of High Energy Physics, Institute of Modern Physics, and Institute of Hydrobiology of CAS had cooperated closely with many institutes of German in various fields, such as accelerator techniques, elementary particles, new energy and environmental ecology, etc., and the cooperation had been very productive. The establishment of the Beijing Representative Office of German Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres not only signified a renewed strengthening of Sino-German cooperative relationship, but offered channels and support for further scientific communication and cooperation between the two countries.

The Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres is the largest scientific organization in German, with 15 research centres, 2.2 billion Euro annual budget, and over 24000 researchers working in the six fields including energy, earth and environment, health, key technologies, structure of matter, and transport and space. They aim at resolving complicated core issues concerning society, science and technology, and economy.

Prof. Yao Tandong, the director of ITP, was invited to the meeting. He gave a report entitled “Geo-Sciences Research on the Tibetan Plateau and ITP” in a session of the meeting, which would help to build the foundation for future Sino-German cooperation in Tibetan Plateau research.