40 Years of Cooperation  [27.11.19]

From development aid to direct cooperation between equals: the private initiative of several professors at the end of the 1970s developed into a highly regarded scientific cooperation between the University of Hohenheim and the China Agricultural University (CAU) in Beijing. Today, both have established themselves as the No. 1 universities in their respective countries' agricultural sciences.

 

It was still late in the night in Germany when President Prof. Dr. Stephan Dabbert of the University of Hohenheim stepped up to the lectern in Beijing. "I am looking back today on 40 years of intensive cooperation which has served two common goals above all: the adequate supply of food to the population and the continued reduction of environmental pollution in agriculture," said the President.

Much of what both universities started as pilot projects has since become established in German-Chinese cooperation. “In Germany and Europe, the largest group of international students comes from China. Former Chinese doctoral candidates from Hohenheim are now professors in China, and I look forward to the day when the reverse is also true.”

 

From development work to cooperation among equals

That day is probably not far in the future: As part of international research training groups, both universities have been training doctoral students jointly for 15 years. In recent rankings, the China Agricultural University has even risen to number 2 in agricultural sciences worldwide, providing evidence of the high quality of science conducted there.

The cooperation began with reciprocal visits in 1979. Starting in 1980, Hohenheim professors held lectures in China and carried out smaller research projects there.

From 1984 to 1994, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation funded efforts to establish scientific work in China. This included setting up laboratories, training young scientists and personnel, and conducting scientific workshops. This work resulted in over 500 academic publications and 23 scientific awards.

The turn of the millennium heralded the era of cooperation between equals. The Federal Ministry of Research in Germany and the National Natural Science Foundation of China jointly financed the research project "Sustainable Agriculture in the North Chinese Plain" from 1999 to 2003.

In 2004, the two universities started the first German-Chinese research training group for joint doctoral training. Its focus was on "Modeling Material Flows and Production Systems for Sustainable Resource Use in Intensified Crop Production in the North China Plain." The project was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Chinese Ministry of Education from 2004 to 2013.

Currently, German-Chinese doctoral candidate pairs are doing research in the latest German-Chinese research training group on the topic "Adaptation of maize-based food-feed-energy systems to limited phosphate resources."

Extending German-Chinese cooperation to other scientific disciplines

The spirit of German-Chinese cooperation has long since spread to other fields of science at the University of Hohenheim. The most recent example of this is the "China Competence in Hohenheim (CHIKOH)" project.

CHIKOH prepares scientists and future graduates for cooperation with China and develops a competence network on topics relevant to China. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project as one of four lighthouse projects within the framework of the "Innovative Concepts for the Expansion of China Competence at German Universities."