On March 4-6, 2019, the China-Australia Marine Technology and Blue Economy Seminar was held in Qingdao. The conference was co-hosted by FIO, the Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO-OA), and the Laboratory for Regional Oceanography and Numerical Modeling of the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao). Attendees included 30-plus scientists from FIO, SIO, TIO, the Institute of Oceanology of the CAS, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute (YSFRI) of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS), and other institutions. Qiao Fangli, Party Secretary of FIO, and Andy Steven, Director of the Coastal Zone Research Center of CSIRO-OA, attended the conference and delivered speeches. The conference came with the theme "How to use marine science and technology to support blue economy". These scientists exchanged research progress in blue economy development, model R&D and application, sustainable mariculture and fisheries, and new marine energy. At the seminar, attendees also discussed their future cooperation plan, and made initial progress on the cooperation direction for the next step. They also discussed on the establishment of a joint research center for scientific and technological innovation of blue economy, and reached to consensus, thus laying a solid foundation for their future cooperation. In recent years, FIO has worked to push for the cooperation with CSIRO-OA, and launched several exchanges and mutual visits. In 2016, FIO and CSIRO-OA signed a memorandum of cooperation and understanding. The two partners determined that in the next five years, cooperative research will be conducted in the role of ocean in climate change, ocean and climate model, the key oceanographic process in the Southern Ocean and the South Pole, and other fields. This seminar will contribute to the further implementation of the memorandum and their joint project, and drive the deeper bilateral cooperation in marine field.

Group Photo of Attendees