On May 22, the signature ceremony of the “Agreement on the Extension of Sino-Foreign jointly Operated School of China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy at Huazhong University of Science and Technology” was held in the “Salle des Colonnes” of the Mineralogy Museum of MINES ParisTech (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris). The president of HUST, Prof. Ding Lieyun attended the ceremony and met with the president of MINES ParisTech, Mr. Vincent LAFLÈCHE, the Vice President, Mr. Jérôme ADNOT, the president of Chimie ParisTech (École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris), Mr. Christian LERMINIAUX, and the Dean of international and European affairs t of PSL University (Paris Sciences & Lettres), Mr. Christopher CRIPPS. Mr. Ding Lieyun and Mr. Vincent LAFLÈCHE have signed the agreement on behalf of their universities representatively.

    Representatives from related departments and colleges of PSL University, MINES ParisTech, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Northumbria University (NU), CIRPS and Chimie ParisTechas well as ICARE Co-deans, the Directors of HUST Human Resources Office and International Exchange Center attended the ceremony.

    ICARE is the only Sino-foreign cooperative education institution in our university (HUST) so far. As one of the major programs of China-EU higher educational cooperation platform under the project of China-EU high level culture exchange and dialogue mechanism, after several years of rapid development, the Institute has now become an outstanding Chinese-foreign cooperative education institution that is highly recognized by the Ministry of Education of P.R.China as an example of international cooperation and exchange, especially an important platform for cooperation and exchanges with Europe of our university (HUST).

    At the end of 2017, the end of EU funding has posed a great challenge to the development of ICARE Institute. Our university (HUST) has paid intense attention to the ICARE project. After several rounds of negotiation with MINES ParisTech, we have reached a consensus on the continuation of ICARE cooperation. The signing of this bilateral agreement provides a new opportunity for the two parties to develop a wider and closer relationship in the next phase. The two sides will further rely on the dominant disciplines of the cooperative universities in China and Europe to tap potentials, build consensus, and push the education and scientific research cooperation to a new height so as to give full play to the role of universities in serving the educational cooperation between China and France and even with EU countries,and injecting new impetus to China-EU relations in the new era.