The Forum on the Mobility of European Researchers in China that took place Thursday 19 September at the premises of the European Delegation in Beijing was a huge success. Gathering together more than 100 European researchers from all over China the event was the largest such event to ever take place. The participants came from 21 European countries and are based in 20 different cities around China.
The groups of researchers were split in the morning into 6 parallel working groups; a group for PhD students, a group for PostDocs and other Early Career Researchers, a group of Social Scientist, a group of Natural Scientists, a group of people involved in managment and administration and a group for researchers that come from International institutions in China. Each group discussed for 4 hours the topics of mobility focusing on concrete and practical solutions to some of the challenges their group faces.
Nicolas Chapuis, European Union Ambassador to China opened a joint afternoon session and talked directly with the researchers for more than an hour about the importance of their presence in China. The second half of the session was opened by Andrea Strelcova, an expert on the topic of mobility of European Researchers in China, who gave an overview of the previous activities on the same topic, the current state of play and some of the outcomes of the morning. The final session of the day was moderated by Halldor Berg Hardarson, the Chief Representative of EURAXESS China, who brought together in a panel representatives of all the different working groups and opened up a debate with the joint group of the researchers on the outcome of the day.
The forum was closed by few remarks from Florent Bernard, the China desk officer of the DG RTD of the European Commission. The event was followed by a brief networking cocktail at the Galileo Room of the European Delegation.
The event was organised by the Europe-China Partnership Facility for the European Delegation in China in cooperation with EURAXESS China. The outcomes and in particular the recommendations gathered in the morning workshops will be the base of an internal report that will be used by the European Delegation as a resource to decide on the framework conditions on the topic of mobility that will be part of the upcoming joint Sino-European R&I Roadmap.
See a gallery with pictures from the event on our Facebook page