The Australia-China Joint Centre for Energy and Environmental Materials has been officially opened on Griffith’s Gold Coast campus.
The world-class research facility will provide an opportunity for collaboration on solutions to challenging global and environmental issues.
Addressing academic leaders and government representatives, Vice Chancellor Professor Ian O’Connor said the joint laboratory is a strategic venture for Griffith University and it’s partners in the way that it facilitates the sharing of knowledge.
“It is a significant development for our international research collaborations because it is focussed on creating multi-faceted and long-term engagement with key-research institutions and organisations in China,” Professor O’Connor said.
The opening was also the launch for “International Symposium for Energy and Environmental Materials” which continues throughout 18 -19 February, hosted by Griffith as part of an agreement with three other partners in a multilateral research cooperation MoU.
These include the largest university in China, Jilin University, which has 100,000 students, the Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the South China University of Technology (SCUT).
Distinguished guests at the launch included Dr Geoff Garrett AO, Queensland’s Chief Scientist and Mr Zhouhua Cao the Consul of Science and Technology representing the Consul General for the People’s Republic of China in Brisbane. They were welcomed by Professor Huijun Zhao from the Griffith School of Environment.
The collaboration imperative
Dr Garrett, insisted that Australia brings with it “a strong commitment to the importance of science and research.
“In the last decade our scientific outputs by publication doubled, but with international collaborators they have trebled. We are serious in this country about the collaboration imperative internationally,” he said.
