Uni benefits from China research funding

Wednesday, 2 April 2003

The University of Adelaide will receive $39,000 from Commonwealth funding to further strengthen research partnerships between Australian and Chinese universities.

Seven other Australian universities were also selected and will benefit from the $585,000 awarded by Dr Brendan Nelson, Minister for Education, Science and Training to participate in this new Commonwealth Government research program between Australia and China.

The University of Adelaide's research is in the area of "Improving Soil Environmental Quality: the Soil/Plant Interface."

"The funding is to develop on-going fundamental and strategic research and research training in soil environmental quality and plant productivity in managed and natural plant ecosystems. These are areas of great socioeconomic importance in Australia and China, as reflected in their national research priorities. The proposal builds on strong links already established between the Australian and Chinese core partners during the period 2000-2002," says Professor Sally Smith, Director, Centre for Plant Root Symbioses, Soil and Land Systems, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Waite Campus, University of Adelaide.

This project is the direct result of collaboration between Professors Sally and Andrew Smith at the University of Adelaide and Professor Zhu Yongguan, now at the Research Center for Ecoenvironmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, but formerly a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Adelaide, funded by the CRC for Molecular Plant Breeding.

The university will be partnering with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Agricultural University. On Monday, April 14, the Adelaide laboratory will be opened by Professor and Dr -Ing Lu Yongxiang, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The projects cover a broad range of key research areas of mutual interest to both Australia and China including science, economics and social sciences. Nanotechnology, globalisation and herbal medicine are just some of the specific research areas in other successful applications.

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