Helmholtz Association Beijing Office celebrates tenth anniversary

The Helmholtz Association’s international office in Beijing is celebrating its tenth anniversary. It was established in 2003, shortly after the opening of Brussels Office, as the second international office of Germany’s largest scientific organisation. The Beijing Office has reinforced the intensive collaboration that was already in place between Helmholtz and leading Chinese scientific institutions, and has encouraged the formation of a diverse and constantly expanding network of German-Chinese research partners. To mark its ten-year anniversary in China, the Helmholtz Association invited research partners and distinguished science representatives from both nations to a celebration at the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion in Beijing.

“Establishing the Beijing Office enabled the Helmholtz Association to bring together two very different research cultures in the space of just a few years,” said Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association. Back in 2003, he explained, it was already clear that only cross-national efforts could provide solutions to global challenges – international-level research involving strong partners from many different countries. “We have a lot of research interests in common, for example within the field of large-scale infrastructures,” he said – just this spring, China published a roadmap for the operation of its research infrastructures. This is the perfect opportunity, said Mlynek, to intensify the cooperation even further and to exchange ideas on how best to work on these sorts of structures.

A ten-year partnership

“China has become an important strategic partner for the Helmholtz Association,” said Hong He, head of the Helmholtz Beijing Office. “Both countries can benefit from one another – and especially from the huge potential of excellently trained researchers and China’s wealth of natural resources.” Furthermore, he added, China’s swift economic growth and enormous scientific and technological expertise are very attractive to Germany.

The Beijing Office does not, however, simply serve as a liaison between the research systems of both countries, it also works to forge new German-Chinese links between research and commerce. To expand its existing network, the Helmholtz Beijing Office informs German research partners about China’s political system, job market, academic opportunities and research projects. The Beijing Office works to increase Chinese research partners’ awareness of the Helmholtz Association, with its excellent research conditions and unique infrastructure, and to let the scientific community know about the Helmholtz’s cast-iron reputation for providing high-quality training of talented young researchers and undertaking challenging research projects.

A fruitful partnership

The success of the collaboration is reflected in the growing number of Chinese researchers working for the Helmholtz Association – more than 700 now work at the various Helmholtz Centres, making them the largest community of foreign researchers. Between them, they carry out research across all six Helmholtz research areas: Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, and Aeronautics, Space and Transport. The association’s Chinese partners include many institutes in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), universities and government institutions. Since 2012, the Helmholtz Association, working with the CAS, has been supporting German-Chinese research projects that are of key importance to society. This year, the jury has selected five projects from the research areas Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies and Structure of Matter.

Looking forward

“Over the past ten years, both partners have strengthened their common basis,” enthused Mlynek. “To further consolidate these foundations, we are launching five more collaborative projects at the anniversary celebration today.” Within the research area of Health, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) are establishing a biotechnology institute in collaboration with Shandong University in China. The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam is embarking upon a partnership with the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). The Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and the Office of the National Administrative Committee of Postdoctoral Researchers in China (ONACPR) have signed a joint agreement to support the promotion and training of Chinese postdocs, while the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research is entering into collaboration with the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences. Finally, the foundation of a Helmholtz-CAS institute of environmental information science has been officially announced. This project will take place within the Helmholtz International Research Network, an initiative for promoting joint research projects between Helmholtz Centres and strategic research partners from around the globe.