Founded in May 2013, Sino-Africa Joint Research Center (SAJOREC) is an active action responding to the “Belt and Road” Initiative. It is established under the framework of CAS’s Developing Countries Science & Education Cooperation Programme, and the infrastructure construction of SAJOREC has been listed in The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Johannesburg Action Plan (2016-2018). The research center is located at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Kenya, and the host institute is Wuhan Botanical Garden of CAS.

First of its kind in Africa, SAJOREC will serve as the platform and bridge of cooperation and exchange between China and the African institutions and scientists in a wide range of fields. It is a hub of Sino-Africa collaboration on biodiversity-related research, it also focuses on areas such as wildlife protection, prevention and treatment of desertification, climate change monitoring, and modern agriculture demonstration.

With the participation of 18 CAS-affiliated institutions and academic organizations in Africa, SAJOREC divided its various joint research programs into five areas, i.e. Biodiversity and Conservation, Geographic Science and Remote Sensing, Microbiology and Epidemic Disease Control, Water Resource Management, and Modern Agriculture Demonstration, all of which have established collaborative relationship with African partners.

Since 2013 when the center officially launched, SAJOREC has initiated more than 45 joint research programs. The research on biodiversity conservation in East Africa, modern agriculture technology training and demonstration, water environment monitoring of the big lake watershed have achieved fruitful impacts. Eighteen workshops and seminars were held and more than 160 African technicians have been trained.

In the future, SAJOREC will unremittingly put forward scientific cooperation of mutually benefit, and provide more training and education opportunities for overall sustainable development of all African countries.

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Sino-Africa Joint Research Centre launched in Kenya