The China-Italy Science (CAS), Technology & Innovation Week was held in November. The Minister of Education, Universities and Research, Stefania Giannini, made stops in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Chongquin, accompanied by a delegation representing 160 research, university and national industry entities, including INFN and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The purpose of the trip was to strengthen relations between the two countries in the fields of scientific research and technological innovation. In Beijing, in particular, the Minister visited IHEP (Institute of High Energy Physics), the Chinese counterpart of INFN, with which for decades there has been solid cooperation on projects of great scientific importance. Such as the BESIII experiment, funded by the European Union as part of Horizon 2020, the DAMPE satellite, to be launched by 2015, and the JUNO neutrino detector, under construction also thanks to the important Italian contribution. “All this is not only for the benefit of scientific research, of our understanding of the universe and of the laws that govern it, – underlined Minister Giannini – but also of the industrial and economic development of our two countries, thanks to the enormous potential to be exploited in current and future cooperation”. The Minister’s visit was also an opportunity to renew, in the headquarters of IHEP, the framework agreement between CAS and INFN, in order to strengthen the existing scientific cooperation and foster new initiatives. The mobility programme associated with the agreement will also allow a continuous two-way exchange of Chinese and Italian researchers between the two Institutes.
