NCHU-UCD

National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) is a top research university with the longest history, an important cradle of agricultural development in Taiwan, and a leading research institution of tropical and subtropical agricultural development in the world. The University of California, at Davis (UC Davis, UCD) is ranked as one of the top 100 universities in the world, and is also the most important academic research institution for agricultural science in the United States. Ever since 1991, these two universities have gradually established a comprehensive cooperative relationship. Through more than ten years of long-term academic cooperation and teamwork, a comprehensive and complementary international agricultural cooperation network has gradually been formed by establishing a transnational NCHU-UCD International Plant and Food Biotechnology Center. In order to further deepen the cooperation between these two universities, representative members of NCHU and UCD have formed a NCHU-UCD Joint Hub to ensure the cooperation relationship and the exchange of information between two parties. To enhance the research energy and international competitiveness of two universities, we have organized bilateral cooperative research teams to conduct advance and innovative agricultural biotechnological research projects. The Larry Vanderhoef Memorial Lecture Series were also established in 2019 in honor of late Dr. Larry Vanderhoef who initiated the collaboration between NCHU-UCD. Moreover, the UC Davis (UCD) 3+ X Master’s Degree Program is aimed to assist excellent NCHU undergraduate students to pursuit their master degrees at UCD.

To enhance the interaction between two universities, we encourage our faculty members to establish international collaboration teams with faculties at UC Davis. Several research teams have formed to study various aspects of science, agriculture, and biology. In 2019, NCHU invited several UCD professors to share their expertise in 6 different areas, not only exchange information but also deepen bilateral cooperative research between NCHU and UCD (Fig. 1). From these 6 bilateral cooperative research teams, NCHU-UCD extends to 16 bilateral cooperative research teams in 2020 (Fig. 2). With the establishment of NCHU-UCD Joint Hub, we anticipate more information exchange and stronger cooperation between NCHU and UCD fully cooperate in different aspects.

【Fig 1】 NCHU-UCD Joint Research Teams formed in 2019.

【Fig 2】 More NCHU-UCD Joint Research Teams established in 2020.

In order to expand and deepen the NCHU's research energy, we have set UC Davis, an international university, with renowned agriculture and biology, as our benchmark goal.

In addition to encouraging our faculty to continue building a long-term, substantial research collaboration with UCD through the NCHU-UCD bilateral research collaboration plan, we also fully support our excellent students at all levels to UCD for short-term research program. In 2019, 9 students sponsored by NCHU were given opportunities to visit UCD for 3 months through this short-term exchange program, including 1 postdoctoral fellow (College of Life Science), 3 doctoral students (Ph.D. Program in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, College of Life Science, and College of Engineering) and 5 master’s students (College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts). A total of 9 collaborative projects have been established and we are very excited to their achievements to the science community.