The China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Center for Water Technology (JRDC) held a meeting on performance evaluation and work promotion for the period of 2018-2021 both online and offline on September 20, 2022. Qiu Huasheng, Distinguished Professor at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Feng Feng, Executive Dean of the College of Advanced Agricultural Sciences of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences(UCAS), and Prof. Xiao Feng from the North China Electric Power University(NCEPU) were invited as experts to the meeting. Present were over 40 representatives from project participants such as the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG), Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology (CIGIT), the Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) and the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI), project partners such as the Institute of Oceanology and USTC, as well as the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS).

The meeting was presided over by Prof. Yang Min, Deputy Director of RCEES. At the outset, Prof. Wei Yuansong reported the performance evaluation of the JRDC for the period of 2018-2021, progress in the work of 2022 and future work plan. Then project participants reported the main advances, problems and work plans on topics such as CKDu cause investigation, safe water supply, water resources management and material anticorrosion. The three experts spoke highly of the results the JRDC project undertakers had achieved, and pointed out the necessity and importance of further identifying the mission of the JRDC, condensing scientific questions and reviewing the results achieved.

With the strong support of the Bureau of International Cooperation of CAS and RCEES as well as the concerted efforts of all participating units, the JRDC building, which was built with the assistance of the Ministry of Commerce, was put into operation in October 2021, pushing the China-Sri Lanka cooperation into a new stage of development. The JRDC was rated “excellent” in the first performance evaluation of overseas joint centers for education and research of the CAS. Looking ahead, the JRDC will need to move its work forward, channel more manpower and resources into the work in Sri Lanka, strengthen its all-round scientific and technological cooperation with the Sri Lankan side and further expand the areas of research to include air pollution and material corrosion, in a bid to promote the transformation and application of research results in Sri Lanka and benefit the people there.

China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Center for Water Technology

International Cooperation Office, RCEES, CAS

September 23, 2022