As well as offering exchange opportunities for academic staff and students, the MOU aimed to establish joint research projects between the two institutions. Most significantly, the requirements for developing a joint research centre for food safety and processing would be discussed.
This week a delegation from China visited Lincoln on the back of the MOU.
“At the heart of this MOU is a desire to form research collaborations more specifically around food safety, food processing, and nutrition,” Lincoln University Professor of Food Science Charles Brennan said.
“This could mean anything from developing better processing systems and methods, to innovative new products. It’s an area that is of great importance in China, and so this MOU provides a great opportunity for information sharing and development,” he said.
The agreement with South China University of Technology followed on from a series of commercial relationships established with tertiary institutions and businesses across China; including the MOU signed in November last year with Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, one of the largest dairy companies in China.