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ZJU leaders promote strategic cooperation with universities in Germany and Austria

2018-08-17

A delegation from ZJU, led by Party Secretary ZOU Xiaodong, visited universities in Germany and Austria to deepen exchanges and promote strategic cooperation on August 6-10.

On August 8, the ZJU delegation paid a visit to the University of Munich (LMU).Vice President Prof. Dr. Hans van Ess extended a cordial welcome to the delegation on behalf of Prof. Dr. Bernd Huber, president of LMU. Both parties lauded the fruits of cooperation in recent years, signed an agreement on strategic cooperation, and co-established a seed fund to support collaborative work in major domains. 

“We are pleased to have success working with ZJU through the LMU-China Academic Network (LMU-ChAN) ,” said Hans van Ess. “We would like to thank ZJU for its strong support towards the creation of the Network.”

“This agreement ushers in a new phase of our partnership. I firmly believe we will have deeper collaborations by involving more disciplines on both sides and by innovatively engaging external resources to make an impact, ” said ZOU Xiaodong.

As one of Europe’s leading research universities, LMU looks back on 500 years of tradition and forward to the challenges and responsibilities ahead. Its excellence in teaching and research embraces a wide diversity of fields—from the humanities and cultural studies through law, economics and social sciences to medicine and natural sciences. In the World University Ranking 2018, LMU occupies the top spot among German universities, sharing the 34th slot with the University of British Columbia in Canada worldwide.

On August 9, the delegation visited Charité in Berlin. Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe. Charité proudly lays claim to more than half of all German Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine, including Emil von Behring, Robert Koch, and Paul Ehrlich.

At Charité, Executive Board Chairman Karl Einhäupl, Dean of the Faculty Axel Radlach Pries and Medical Director Ulrich Frei shared with the delegation on the administrative and operational mode of Charité with the ZJU delegation. Both parties expressed wishes to vigorously promote a 360-degree partnership in medicine.

On August 10, the delegation visited the Free University of Berlin and met with President Günter Ziegler and Vice President for International Affairs Verena Blechinger-Talcott. Both parties hoped to deepen cooperation in the domains of humanity and social sciences and explored the prospect of a joint educational program. ZOU Xiaodong and Günter Ziegler re-signed the agreement on cooperation between two universities and the student exchange agreement.

Before the trip to Germany, the delegation also visited the University of Vienna in Austria. Christa Schnabl, Vice Rector for Educational Affairs, received the delegation. Representatives of both universities discussed possible future research collaborations and signed a cooperation agreement to encourage scientific exchanges in social and natural sciences.