At the invitation of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission, a delegation led by NSFC Vice President Xie Xincheng visited Switzerland and Belgium from January 22 to 29, 2019.

In Switzerland, Prof. Xie Xincheng met with Prof. Eckhard Elsen, CERN’s Director for Research and Computing. Prof. Elsen gave an overview of the research of CERN and showed the delegation the ATLAS detector, the CERN data center and AMS control center. Prof. Xie was briefed on the progress of CERN experiments and had a discussion with Chinese scientists working in CERN.

In Switzerland, Prof. Xie also attended the kick-off meeting of the project “Electricity Driven Low Energy and Chemical Input Technology for Accelerated Bioremediation“ and delivered opening remarks on behalf of NSFC. The project was the first Flagship Initiative project jointly funded by NSFC and DG RTD in environmental biotechnology. Around 60 participants from 23 Chinese and European research organizations attended the kick-off meeting. The delegation also visited the University of Applied Science and Arts of Northwestern Switzerland, learned the research progress of its School of Life Sciences and visited labs.

In Belgium, Prof. Xie Xincheng met with Ms. Signe Ratso, Deputy Director General of DG RTD and the two sides had a discussion on International High-Level Forum on Bioeconomy, open access and the possibility of establishing a funding mechanism for scientist exchange between China and EU under the framework of Marie Curie program. In the meeting with Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of European Research Council (ERC), Prof. Xie discussed the new round of joint program to be launched soon and future cooperation between NSFC and ERC, and expressed willingness to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially on strategic dialogue and policy issues. In the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Prof. Xie met with Mr. Hans Willems, Secretary General of FWO. The two sides had a discussion on NSFC’s on-going reform, open access, the relationship between FWO and Belgium government and NSFC-FWO cooperation.

Prof. Xie Xincheng was accompanied by Wang Yan, Minister-Counselor of Chinese Mission to the EU, Fan Yingjie, Deputy Director-General of Bureau of International Cooperation, NSFC and Liu Qiang, Program Director of Department of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, NSFC.