Developing institutional collaboration between Wageningen university and the Chinese academy of agricultural sciences

Scientific co-operation between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and Wageningen University (WU) has been underway since 1990, especially in the field of plant sciences. In 2001, CAAS and WU initiated a formal joint PhD training programme to further structure their co-operation. The goals of this co-operation are to: (1) initiate long-term institutional collaboration through capacity building; (2) jointly establish a modern laboratory; (3) jointly develop a cross-cultural scientific culture, and (4) set up collaboration in specific fields. Proper selection of PhD research themes was very important in the starting phase, since it would be a basis for good future collaboration. Both the culture and the educational system in the Netherlands and China are very different and this is reflected in their respective PhD educational systems. This article describes the joint PhD programme against the background of these different cultural settings and the different mandates for research of both WU and CAAS. It provides an overview of the requirements and discusses ways to develop a successful co-operation between WU and CAAS.