Official opening of Danish-Chinese basic research centre

	The new Heads of Centre are Head of Division, Dr Techn. Dorte Juul Jensen from the Materials Research Division at Risø DTU and Professor Ke Lu from Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research (IMR SYNL), Shenyang. Click here to read the press release from the Danish National Research Foundation (in Danish) Read about the former collaboration (in Danish)

The Materials Research Division, Institute of Metals Research in Shenyang and the universities Tsinghua and Chongqing applied to the Danish National Research Foundation for a grant to open a Nanotechnology centre. The application was approved in June 2009.

”It is intended that three new nano centres will help to enhance collaboration between China and Denmark. For us it will be a matter of expanding and further developing the already existing collaboration between AFM and our three Chinese partners,” says Head of Division Dorte Juul Jensen, adding that the present collaboration is very satisfactory and that she has high hopes for this future collaboration.

The new funds mean that the collaboration will be formalised with detailed work plans and both large and small workgroups. Ultimately there will be a much more focused effort in nano-metals, an area which has proved important in the struggle to find energy-saving alternatives for the transport sector. But also physical properties such as electrical and magnetic properties will be explored.

”The centre will focus on science. But education has a high priority too. Additionally, we will focus on business opportunities. Nano-metals have a great importance for transport, as weight is connected with energy consumption during transport,” Dorte explains.

Complementarity and synergy in the partnership
The three Chinese partners have been carefully selected to give the greatest complementarity and synergy in the collaboration between the two countries.



The two Heads of Centre: Head of Division Dorte Juul Jensen and Pofessor Ke Lu.

During the last 10 years I've typically been to China twice a year. And it has given me a very good impression of what kind of skills the various parties have. This knowledge has particular helped me choosing partners," Dorte Juul Jensen says.

The Danish part of the new basic research centre will be located at the Materials Research Division at Risø DTU and will involve around 15 people working full-time or partly on the project.

”We have received DKK 15 million to spend over three years. If everything turns out well and if our Chinese partners are still interested after those three years, there is the possibility that the project can be extended for a further three years,” Dorte says.