DBAR Opens the Center of Excellence in Helsinki

On October 30, 2018, GUO Huadong, Chair of DBAR, led a delegation to attend the Kumara Academic Conference in Helsinki, Capital of Finland, and gave a report titled the “DBAR-PEEX Intercontinental Cooperation.” He elaborated on DBAR’s concept, vision, goals, research framework, and cooperation model. He also briefed on DBAR's scientific model that is to build the Big Earth Data platform to aid the sustainable development in the Belt and Road Initiative as well as the progress made in relevant research fields.
 
The meeting also featured the unveiling ceremony of DBAR International Center of Excellence at Helsinki (ICoE-Helsinki). DBARICoE-Helsinki, is one of the first batch of eight international centers of excellence established by DBARand the fifth ICoE following Bangkok, El Jadida, Lusaka, and Moscow. It was developed and will be operated by Helsinki University in Finland. Markku Kulmala, academician of Finnish Academy of Sciences and foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, serves as the director of the center. The center will focus on the research in the northern cold regions with the support of the DBAR Mountain and Polar Cold Region Task Force (DBAR-HiMAC) and in collaboration with the working groups of the coastal zone, environmental change, natural disasters, and water resources. DBAR ICoE-Helsinki is one of priorities and goals of the Digital Belt and Road (DBAR), the third program of the Big Earth Data Science Engineering Project (CASEarth) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)Strategic Priority Research Program (A). 

Director Markku Kulmala said that DBAR ICoE-Helsinki is an exemplar of scientific and technological cooperation between China and Finland under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, which is of milestone significance. He highlighted the center's objectives and mission as well as its operational mechanism and cooperative research model. The center will pool relevant scientific and technological forces to carry out collaborative research on climate change, air quality, biodiversity, and other aspects of big Earth data, so as tousebig Earth data to serve the UN SDGs.

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