International Focus in LEC
Chinese Academy of Sciences to collaborate with Lancaster
Professor Yonglong Lu and the Vice-Chancellor sign the Memorandum of Understanding
Lancaster University’s links with China have been strengthened with a formal collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) based on the environmental sciences.
A delegation from CAS visited Lancaster this month (January 18-20), to sign a Memorandum of Understanding outlining areas of joint interest and agreeing a timeframe for developing priority areas.
Opportunities for collaboration include postgraduate and staff training, summer schools, exchange programmes, business and enterprise, and research.
The five visitors were welcomed at the Lancaster Environment Centre, where they viewed presentations by senior staff on the University’s environmental portfolio before the signing of the Memorandum. They also met colleagues from the University’s China Bridge project as well as Chinese visitors and researchers.
LEC Professor Kevin Jones, who helped set up the link with CAS, said: “We are very pleased to be working closely with CAS on global problems and topical environmental issues ranging from sustainable agriculture and land use to energy, waste and pollution.
“The partnership will also enable us offer a new two year Masters Programme to students who will split their study time between Lancaster University and CAS.”
CAS has over 100 institutes as well as a university and graduate school. The CAS Institute for Geochemistry in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and the CAS Institute for the Urban Environment in Xiamen, Fujian province, have been chosen as initial institutes for collaboration, since they already take the lead role for CAS in Lancaster’s UK-China Bridge Project.
The China Bridge project is funded by Research Councils UK to improve UK innovation links with China to help tackle environmental issues such as global food security and water quality. Professor Bill Davies of the Lancaster Environment Centre is leading the three year research programme which will tackle some of these problems.
Lancaster’s Partners in China include leading scientists at: China Agricultural University, Nanjing University, North West Agricultural and Forestry University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The University’s links with China also include the Lancaster China Management Centre at LUMS which aims to develop new programmes of research and teaching relevant to the needs of Chinese managers.
In 2008, the University launched a three-week Summer School at Beijing Foreign Studies University - Lancaster’s longest standing partner in China and one of China’s leading universities in teaching foreign languages and cultures.
LEC opens its Dual PhD program with the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil
LEC and the Federal University of Lavras are advertising three projects for the new Dual-PhD program. The three projects are 1) The role of floral resources in enhancing biodiversity-dependent ecosystem services in horticulture; 2) Land-use change and soil microbial communities in Brazilian Amazonia: implications for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem function and land-use sustainability; and 3) The diversity and composition of freshwater fish across three Brazilian watersheds: implications for the conservation of biotic integrity. The projects are available for Brazilian students, who would spend at least one year of their PhD in LEC.
Students interested in applying should go to: http://www.prpg.ufla.br/prpg2010/index.php/2010/10/08/563/
Cognoscenti Compliance Ltd explores international markets following collaboration with LEC
Tom Fuller of Cognoscenti Compliance Ltd
Environmental law is regularly updated and Cognoscenti Compliance provides software to companies working within the sector which ensures that they are aware of the latest changes to environmental legislation, and allows them to monitor their own compliance.
The firm, which was established last year, already has an extensive database of clients throughout the UK and is now looking to grow on the back of European legislation and EU expansion. In line with these aims, Cognoscenti recently collaborated with LEC through the Graduate Consultancy programme.
Owing to a successful transnational link with the Kosovan government 15 Kosovans enrolled onto a 1 year Masters degree within LEC. The Enterprise and Business Partnerships team placed a Kosovan Government Minister for Environment with Cognoscenti for a 5-week period. The Minister considered Cognoscenti’s software and how useful it may be for the environmental objectives of Kosovo.
Cognoscenti is now investigating opportunities in Kosovo but is also looking to break into Europe. Managing Director Tom Fuller explained “Because the environmental industry is growing so quickly people are picking up on this idea of compliance software. We already have the model and the system so I believe we should be capitalising on that as quickly as we can. Ultimately the goal for us is to have a system that covers the whole of Europe.
We are also working with UKTI to introduce us to environmental consultants and translators in Europe because, with our resources, we simply could not do that level of research, it is the kind of work we would have to ship out to someone else.”