On the morning of November 5, 2026, Prof. Yujie LAN, Vice President of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and Prof. Zhiyong HAN, Secretary-General, along with Prof. Axel Brakhage, Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG), and Dr. Heide Ahrens, Secretary-General of the DFG, visited the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). Academician Qikun XUE, President of SUSTech, held talks with the delegation, along with relevant SUSTech representatives.

President XUE welcomed the delegation’s visit. He pointed out that SUSTech has always been committed to high-standard opening-up and attaches great importance to practical cooperation with German research institutions and leading universities. The two sides have a solid foundation in academic exchanges, joint training, and research collaboration. They look forward to using this exchange as an opportunity to further promote the two-way flow of young scholars between China and Germany, establish high-level, long-term joint research projects, align with the industrial needs of Shenzhen and major German cities, and continuously drive practical achievements in Sino-German scientific and educational cooperation.

Prof. Zhiyong HAN thanked SUSTech for its warm hospitality. He noted that SUSTech has rapidly grown into an important emerging force in Chinese higher education and is also a key academic partner of the NSFC in international cooperation. He hoped that both sides would leverage the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC) as a bridge to further deepen Sino-German research collaboration.

Dr. Heide Ahrens praised SUSTech’s rapid development. She mentioned that the DFG, as Germany’s largest research funding organization, supports over 30,000 research projects annually, and its members include Germany’s 99 leading universities, major non-university research institutions, scientific associations, and academies of sciences. The Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC) is the first overseas research cooperation center established by the DFG. She noted that SUSTech’s key disciplines align closely with the cutting-edge areas that the DFG focuses on, and expressed hope that both sides would carry out multi-level exchanges to continuously broaden and deepen their cooperation.

During the discussion, both sides had an in-depth exchange on higher education internationalization, interdisciplinary research, and talent cultivation.

The delegation also visited the Institute of Robotics Research, the Artificial Intelligence Exhibition Hall, and the Free Electron Laser Model, gaining a detailed understanding of SUSTech’s operations. 

The event was attended by Prof. Yingjie FAN, Director General of the Bureau of International Cooperation of the NSFC and Chinese Director of the SGC; Academicians Xueming YANG and Shuhong YU of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Xiuping LIU, Director of the Division of American and Oceanian Affairs, Bureau of International Cooperation at the NSFC and Chinese Executive Deputy Director of the SGC; Dr. Harald von Kalm, Head of Department for International Affairs and Integrative Activities at the DFG; Dr. Ingrid Krüßmann, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Bureau of the DFG, and German Director of the SGC; Prof. Mingwei CHEN, Dean of the College of Engineering and Dean of the Advanced Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Prof. Jiaqing HE, Director of the Office of Research. 

The Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC) was jointly established by the NSFC and the DFG in 2000. Over the past two decades, it has actively contributed to promoting exchanges between Chinese and German researchers and supporting the development of young scientists.