Franco-Chinese Ocean Science Cooperation and Youth Initiative & Visit of the French Embassy in China S&T Delegation to IOCAS

On March 24th, we had the chance to take part in the visit of the Science and Technology delegation from the French Embassy in China to the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) in Qingdao, led by Xavier Antoine, Hélène Berges and Aïman Lavallard-Fadlane. The meeting brought together researchers and people involved in Franco-Chinese cooperation in marine sciences. On this occasion, we were pleased to present our initiative, the “Association Franco-Chinoise des Sciences de l’Océan”. This project aims to strengthen exchanges between young French and Chinese researchers by promoting collaboration, mobility, and the sharing of experiences between the two scientific communities. The presentation sparked strong interest and positive feedback from the embassy representatives. The discussions highlighted how relevant this initiative is in the current context of scientific cooperation between France and China, and opened up encouraging perspectives for its future development. More broadly, the day was also a great opportunity to exchange on existing collaborations between French and Chinese institutions, in particular between IOCAS (China) and the MIO (Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography, France). We warmly thank the French Embassy in China as well as all the IOCAS teams for their welcome and support, which help foster new dynamics of cooperation, especially for early-career researchers.