On June 29 (Monday, Brussels, Belgium) at the 17th China-EU Summit, GUO Huadong, Director-General of the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth (RADI) and Vladimír Šucha, Director-General of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), signed a new collaborative research arrangement at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels. The event was witnessed by Chinese Premier LI Keqiang, President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.
According to the agreement, the two parties will contribute to addressing global challenges, such as sustainable development, climate action and disaster risk reduction, and the cooperation will be reinforced and extended to six major fields of Earth observation and Digital Earth covering human settlements analysis, digital earth science platform, land and soil degradation, air quality, land cover mapping, and agricultural monitoring. Collaborative activities will include exchange of scientific and technological information, joint training programmes, participation in the implementation of on-going programmes, projects and related activities of mutual interest to the parties.
The RADI-JRC agreement was listed in the 17th China-EU Summit joint statement as one of the major outcomes. At the 2nd China-EU Innovation Cooperation Dialogue held on the same day, Prof. Guo delivered a talk on the development of Earth observation and Digital Earth in China and the perspectives for SINO-EU cooperation in the field.
JRC is the European Commission's in-house science service which employs scientists to carry out research in order to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy. The relations between the RADI and JRC build upon more than a decade of successful co-operation.
GUO Huadong and Vladimír Šucha sign the agreement on behalf of RADI and JRC. (© EU, 2015 )
