On June 15th to 21th, 2019, NSFC Secretary-General Han Yu led a delegation to attend the 94th Council Meeting of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) held in Vienna, Austria and also paid a visit to Norway.

In Vienna, Secretary-General Han Yu participated in a series of meetings of IIASA Council, including the Executive Committee meeting, the Program Committee meeting, and the Plenary Meeting. During the meetings, Prof. Han and other members heard and deliberated a range of reports including the Executive Committee’s Response Report on reform suggestions, 2018 IIASA Work Report, and the Scientific Report of the Science Advisory Committee. In addition, Prof. Han had a thorough exchange with Council Members from other countries, and made clear NSFC’s position while putting forward with constructive suggestions. The delegation also met with representatives of IIASA’s Chinese employees and Chinese PhD students who are part of IIASA’s 3-month Summer Program for Young Scientists funded by NSFC. Representatives offered insightful suggestions on how to improve the role of IIASA Mechanism.

In Norway, Prof. Han Yu visited the Research Council of Norway (RCN), the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Institute of Bio-economy (NIBIO) and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). He introduced the recent developments of NSFC’s reform and The SDG Research Funding Program, which were well received by the Norwegian side with extensive attention and positive responses. During the meeting with RCN, the delegation was also briefed on the implementation of the NSFC-RCN joint research program.

The delegation consisted of representatives from the NSFC Party Committee and the Bureau of International Cooperation.