On October 17th, the unveiling ceremony of the Biomedical Joint Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as "Joint Innovation Center"), jointly established by Henan University and Macaulay University of Australia, was held in the Lecture Hall of School of Life Science. 3 guests including Vice-Chancellor of Macaulay University Sakkie Pretorius along with Vice-Chancellor Sun Junjian of HENU and representatives from International Affairs Office, Laboratory and Equipment Management Office, School of Graduate, School of Life Science, School of Medicine attended the unveiling ceremony. The ceremony was hosted by Mao Liqun, Director of the International Affairs Office.

President Song Chunpeng met with the delegation of 3 from Macquarie University, including Sakkie Pretorius  Vice-Chancellor of Scientific, Roger Chung Associate Dean of the School of Medicine and Health, Kate Roth Deputy Director of HDR Partnership and Scholarship Office, in Guest Room 210 of the Administration Building. Song Chunpeng expressed a warm welcome to the delegation and fully affirmed the preparatory work of the Joint Innovation Center in the early stage of the two universities. He hoped that both sides would take the establishment of the Joint Innovation Center as a new opportunity to carry out more in-depth cooperation in biology, agriculture, medicine and other related fields.

Sakkie Pretorius expressed sincere gratitude for the warm welcome, fully affirmed the prior joint research results of the two universities, and expressed the desire to carry out more joint research with Henan University on the existing basis, and he was full of confidence in the later joint research.

After the meeting, Sun Junjian and Sakkie Pretorius, on behalf of both sides, held the establishment ceremony and unveiling ceremony for the Henan University - Macquarie University Biomedical Joint Innovation Center in school of Life Science, and signed a detailed substantive cooperation agreement. It was a big step for the cooperation between the two universities and solid foundation for more cooperation in the future.

Sun Junjian said that the Joint Innovation Center is another strong support for “Double First-Class”construction of Henan University. Both HENU and Macquarie University would be able to make use of the high-quality resources of either side to build a first-class international interdisciplinary innovation platform, to take advantage of advanced biomedicine and nanotechnology to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. It was hoped that the Joint Innovation Center would raise more cooperation opportunities on the basis of early cooperation between the two sides, promote the integrated development of production, learning, research and use, and strive to have the center further improved.

Sakkie Pretorius extended congratulations to HENU on participating “Double First-Class” initiative and paid high tribute to the early cooperation achievements of the Joint Innovation Center. Sakkie Pretorius said that Macquarie University had proven expertise in neuroscience, cognitive science, biotechnology, environmental science, nano-photonics and other fields, and stressed importance of the industrial linkage and the transformation and commercialization of scientific research results. It was hoped that, through the joint cooperation platform, universities in the northern and southern hemispheres would be drawn closely, more advantageous resources would be attracted, discipline construction would be enhanced, scientific research capacity of both sides would be improved, talent team construction would be strengthened and international cooperation as well as talent exchange would be heighten. He hoped that we would continue to boost cooperation opportunities and achieve mutual benefit in the future.

The Henan University - Macquarie University Biomedical Joint Innovation Center will effectively utilize the high-quality resources of Henan University and Macquarie University to carry out interdisciplinary research jointly. Also the Joint Innovation Center will play the role of international exchange platform and hub, to accelerate and expand the cooperation between the two universities in student exchange, postgraduate joint training and training of outstanding young teachers. Song Chunpeng and Roger Chung are the directors of the Joint Innovation Center, Shi Bingyang is the Executive Director and Zheng Meng is the Executive Deputy Director. The establishment of the Joint Innovation Center will vigorously promote the development of biology as the first-class discipline of our university, and improve the quality of talent training and international popularity of HENU.