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The first annual workshop of C-CJCBERI has been successfully held on May 9th 2016 at BUCT. There were over 40 attendees including current members, other professors and researchers from UBC, BUCT, Chinese Agriculture University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Hunan Academy of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, and Zhejiang University. Guests mainly included Mr. Dehua Jiang, Director, Division of Americas and Oceania, Department of International Cooperation, China Ministry of Science and Technology; Ms. Alice Niu, Director, International Trade and Investment Office, Representing the Government of British Columbia in North China & East China; and Mr. Michael Weedon, Executive Director, BC Bioenergy Network. Here is the full program of the workshop.
On the morning of May 9th, Director Tan welcomed the attendees and guests and delivered a speech on the trend of bioenergy development in China and the promising future of C-CJCBERI. Director Bi talked about the progress of C-CJCBERI in the past months and the overall plan for the next steps. Mr. Dehua Jiang gave a talk on the strategic importance of bioenergy for China as well as other countries. He mentioned that C-CJCBERI will be included into the Canada-China Joint Science and Technology Action Plan 2016-2018. Mr. Weedon introduced BC Bioenergy Network and expressed the interest in collaboration through C-CJCBERI. Dr. Donald Smith, Scientific Director and CEO of BioFuelNet Canada, gave a remote talk to introduce BioFuelNet Canada including its background, research areas, and current projects.
The attendees conducted group discussions on detailed development plan for C-CJCBERI. Topics included: 1) Development goal and vision for the Centre; 2) Potential research topics and projects for collaboration; 3) Interest, suggestion, and collaboration model for joint funding application; 4) Interest, collaboration model, and timeline for student exchange and co-supervision. The groups then joint together to exchange the outcomes and finalized an Action Plan for the next year.
In the afternoon, the Canadian professors delivered presentations on their research interests and progress. Audience included over 80 undergraduate and graduate students from BUCT in addition to the workshop attendees. This session was followed by a guided lab tour in BUCT that covered several research groups on bioenergy related fields. On the morning of May 10th, seven professors and graduate students from BUCT presented their research to the UBC members. Part of the speakers and UBC professors had a seminar afterwards to learn more about each other’s work and discover collaboration opportunities.
The Canadian professors visited several universities and institutions in the following days in groups or individually. Those included Chinese Academy of Sciences – Institute of Process Engineering, Beijing Forestry University, Tsinghua University, China Agriculture University, Chinese Academy of Sciences – Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Hunan Academy of Forestry, and State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering - South China University of Technology. These visiting and meetings engaged over 50 Chinese professors and researchers in total. Meaningful connections have been established and future collaborations will be facilitated soon.
Successful completion of the first annual workshop is a solid step that leads towards the next stages of the development of C-CJCBERI.