International Cooperation Agreement, Chinese Chemical Society, 2010

The chemical sciences in China are experiencing strong growth, led by huge government investment in research and industry in recent years. Energy, environmental protection and food and drug safety are just a few of the strategic programmes that have expanded. 

The RSC recognises the importance of collaboration between leading chemists in China and the rest of the world. To build on opportunities, the RSC signed an International Cooperation Agreement with the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS) in 2006. 

Since then, the RSC has significantly increased its presence in China, opening offices in Beijing and Shanghai, launching an RSC China website and publishing Chemistry World: China, which highlights the latest Chinese chemical science, business and policy news, in addition to the global perspective of its sister publication, Chemistry World. 

In June 2010, during a visit by RSC representatives to China, RSC Chief Executive Richard Pike and CCS President Chunli Bai renewed the International Cooperation Agreement at a ceremony during the 27th CCS Congress in Xiamen. On signing the agreement, Chunli Bai said: “The renewal of this agreement formalises the cooperation and good working relationship that exists between the Chinese Chemical Society and Royal Society of Chemistry.” This is testament to the RSC’s success in strengthening links with the chemical sciences community in China, through a
number of initiatives. RSC Chief Executive, Richard Pike said: "China continues to present great opportunities for the RSC and the feedback I recieved during our visit was very positive. This is because of the significant commitment we are making in terms of setting up offices, running events, presenting awards, and engaging wide sections of the publishing community through visits throughout the country."

Activities

The International Cooperation Agreement has led to the coorganisation of several conferences and symposia; these include International ChemComm Symposia on Organic Chemistry held in universities in Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, RSC Dalton Division symposia on inorganic chemistry held in Shanghai and Nanjing and a trilateral symposium with the Korean Chemical Society on bionanotechnology at the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) congress in Glasgow. 

Furthermore, a joint RSC-CCS symposium on Frontiers of Supramolecular Chemistry was held at the 27th CCS Congress in Xiamen in June 2010 and challenges in inorganic and materials chemistry were highlighted at the International Symposia for Advancing the Chemical Sciences (ISACS) conference in Hong Kong in July 2010. These events allow the RSC to strengthen links with the Chinese science community by providing opportunities for Chinese scientists to showcase their work internationally and advance innovation through global links with academia and industry.

To further celebrate the RSC's Strong links with China, a set of joint RSC-CCS Awards for Younger Scientists were established in 2008. These biennial awards are presented do researchers under the age of 40 to recognise excellent work in the field of green and sustainable chemistry.  The first awards were presented at the 26th CCS Congress in Tianjin in 2008; the second set of awards were presented in 2010 at the 27th CCS Congress in Xiamen, to Xun Wang (Tsinghua University), Shuhua Li (Nanjing University), Wenping Hu (Institute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences) and Shiyong Liu (University of Science and Technology of China).