On November 8th the Norwegian Veterinary Institute signed two scientific collaboration agreements: one with the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute HVRI – part of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and a second one with the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences IMCAS.
At the signature event, Minister Bollestad also made public that the Ministry has decided to fun NVI with 2 million NOKs for 2020 to operationalize the signed collaboration agreements.
“China is quickly growing into one of the world’s leading nations in terms of scientific production. The institutions with whom we signed agreements are internationally recognized in their fields, and have shown great interest in collaborating with NVI. This will be a unique opportunity to come together to work on challenges that are global and concern us all, no matter if we live in China or Norway”, says Director-General Gaute Lenvik.
HVRI is the biggest veterinary research institute in China located in Harbin in China’s northernmost province of Heilongjiang. Just like NVI, HVRI as central reference laboratory functions for several animal diseases and is an OIE international reference laboratory. HVRI has just inaugurated their new facilities, which include state-of-the-art laboratories, including biosecurity laboratories at level 3 and 4.
IMCAS is the largest microbiological research institution in China, relocated in 2007 to the CAS Life Science Park near the Olympic Village in Beijing. At present, the scientific research system of IMCAS is comprised of five laboratories of which the State Key Laboratory of Mycology and the Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology were highlighted as potential partners for NVI.
“We have been talking to both HVRI and IMCAS for now over 2 years and have found several topics of mutual interest, such as avian influenza, antimicrobial resistance in food or in arctic regions, development of diagnostics and vaccines, mycology and chemical analysis just to name a few. We will now set two working groups (one for each Chinese institute) that will aim at developing short term missions/scientific projects that can work as a catalyzer for future collaborations and submission of joint scientific proposals” says Director for Research and Internationalisation Carlos das Neves.
NVI has extended an invitation to the leaders of both HVRI and IMCAS to visit Norway during 2020.