On December 9, 2016 the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Ministry of Environmental Protection (MOEP), Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) held a symposium on mega water program. The symposium was organized by the Office of Major S&T Projects of MOST and participated by more than 100 representatives from Chinese and German governmental bodies, research institutes, universities and enterprises. The participants carried out in-depth discussions on future S&T cooperation in water environment.

Water environment is an issue of global concern, and it is of great significance for the international community to strengthen S&T cooperation to resolve the issue. In 2015, MOST and BMBF signed the Joint Statement of Intent on Science and Technology Cooperation in Mega Water Program. Within the framework, the two countries have carried out a series of fruitful collaborative research. China’s Mega Water Program is in a critical period under the 13th Five-year Plan, and the Germany’s CLIENT Initiative is calling for a new round of proposals. Both sides took the symposium as a valuable opportunity to exchange opinions and reach agreement on cooperation mechanism, priorities and objectives in the next five years. In the coming few years, MOST, MOEP, MOHURD and BMBF will strengthen pragmatic cooperation to tackle water pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Taihu Lake, jointly select projects to receive funding for water research, establish cooperation mechanisms, facilitate exchanges among the two countries’ policy makers, corporate managers and researchers, and promote practical and productive cooperation.