Chinese Scientists Visit UKZN

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UKZN’s School of Life Sciences hosted a delegation of scientists from the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences (JAAS) in China.

Academics from both institutions are co-supervising nine Chinese PhD students, the result of several visits and the signing of a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in April 2014.

The MoU between UKZN and JAAS encourages co-operation between staff and students for study and research purposes; study abroad programmes; graduate and post-doctoral student exchange programmes; visits by and interchange of staff for research and teaching; exchange of information including library and research publications, and collaborative research activities.

The aim of this year’s visit by JAAS staff was to interact and discuss further possibilities for collaboration.

The JAAS delegation included Professor Shaohua Yan who is the President of JAAS.

Dean and Head of the School of Life Sciences, Professor Sam Mukaratirwa, visited JAAS in 2014 with a small delegation, and spent time understanding the research focus at JAAS, and identified areas of overlap where collaboration would be possible.

The joint PhD projects fall within disciplines such as microbiology, biochemistry and crop science.  One such research project being undertaken by Chinese PhD student Mr Hongduo Bao, focuses on the biocontrol of bovine mastitis causing Staphylococcus aureus by using bacteriophage isolates. The project is being jointly supervised by Professor Stefan Schmidt and Professor Ade Olanarain of UKZN and Professor Ran Wang of JAAS.

Under the Talented Young Scientists Programme, an initiative by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, funding has now been made available for suitably qualified and experienced visiting scientists from South Africa to spend time in China.  The project has been launched to support academic exchange and joint research between China and Africa. About nine positions are available at JAAS under this programme and qualified UKZN staff were invited to apply. 

Another benefit of the MoU is that relevant staff from UKZN have been appointed as Adjunct Professors at JAAS for a period of five years.  Steps are underway for UKZN to reciprocate the relationship and appoint JAAS staff as Honorary Staff.

After academic discussions were complete, the JAAS delegation spent time sight-seeing in Durban.

‘JAAS is an Academy that has a lot of top-end facilities that UKZN can benefit from, especially with staff and student exchange,’ said Mukaratirwa.  ‘The research focus area of food security resonates with both institutions.’

Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, Professor Deo Jaganyi, said he valued the collaboration between JAAS and UKZN.  ‘This is our first MoU with a Chinese institution, and we want to make it work.  I particularly like the fact that it is being monitored year by year to ensure it is fruitful and productive.

‘This is only the beginning and there is a lot that we can learn from each other.’

Founded as the National Central Institute of Agriculture in 1932, JAAS is now a research institution under the supervision of the Jiangsu Provincial Government, with 2 348 fulltime staff engaged in research into crop breeding, plant protection, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, agricultural resources and environment, agro-biotechnology, quality and safety control of agricultural produce, agricultural facilities and equipment, and agricultural information and macro-economy.  Currently JAAS is involved in over 1 600 research projects.

 Sally Frost