According to instructions of Yongxiang Lu, the president of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), who visited the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (ISA) in November last year, with the support of International Cooperation Agency of CAS, ISA started the project to join in TWAS-UNESCO in February 2008 and received a notice from the Third World Academy of Sciences recently, that ISA had been officially accepted as a member of the scheme and has become one of the 100 outstanding research centers.

In order to help counteract the brain drain in developing countries, “Associateship Scheme”, funded by UNESCO, the government of Italy and the OPEC Fund for International Development, was founded in 1994. More than 100 outstanding research centers had agreed to participate in the scheme, which encouraged the most promising researchers from developing countries to carry out researches in outstanding centers.

At present, under the jointly support of TWAS and CAS, there were 2 scholars from Africa for research training and cooperation in ISA. As a member of “TWAS-UNESCO Associateship Scheme”, ISA will further strengthen the cooperation with developing countries, especially for developing countries in Africa and South-East Asia, and it will enhance regional and international research status of ISA. (Jun. 25, 2008)