Greetings from CRECET Professors

In June 2017, Kyoto University was selected as one of the Designated National University Corporations by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). Based on the tradition since its foundation, it drew up a relevant plan for developing and securing human resources, reinforcing governance and research capacity, international cooperation, and collaboration with society. Based on the plan, it has been addressing various problems faced by humanity and the world. One of the focuses of the Designated National University Corporation Plan is on-site laboratories. These are established in cooperation with overseas universities and research institutions; and through the network, Kyoto University will proactively interact with overseas institutions, and drive advanced world-leading research. The laboratory will help to secure the best international students, strengthen cooperation with industry, and pursue a host of activities beneficial to the university. Since its establishment more than 15 years ago in 2005, CRECET has been dedicated to cooperation between its two-member universities, to solve environmental problems caused by economic development in southern China. Thus far, CRECET has developed with the support of Kyoto University, Tsinghua University, and environmental companies in Japan and China. It currently has a range of advanced experimental equipment and facilities, and promotes communication among faculty members of the two universities, the student internship program, and joint education. The double degree program between Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University and Tsinghua Shenzhen International School has already started from 2018. The double degree program in Graduate School of Engineering will start from 2021. It originally aimed to address environmental issues in Japan and China, but has now entered a new stage in which the universities cooperate in research and education to address worldwide environmental issues. In December 2018, CRECET was authorized as an on-site laboratory by Kyoto University, which acknowledged it in this capacity together with Tsinghua University. The universities cooperate in research and education in the environmental field, and I expect that CRECET will help the schools further promote world-leading research, develop preeminent human resources, and strengthen cooperation with industry. I believe that it will also enhance their activities, expand their range into other fields, and contribute to the realization of sustainable society.

Professor of Kyoto University (Vice-director)
Taku Fujiwara

Although rapid economic development in China has caused environmental issues pertaining to the atmosphere, waste and water, among other concerns; there has been a rapid advancement of mitigative measures in recent years. Recently, the Japanese government has announced a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions as well as a reduction of additional marine plastic litter pollution to zero, by 2050. In order to realize a low-carbon society with sound resource circulation in both Japan and China, cooperation between the Kyoto and Qinghua Universities is required; the targets can be achieved by effectively utilizing their resources and energy. The Cooperative Research and Education Center for Environmental Technology (CRECET) in Shenzhen, is an important research base for solving environmental issues in both countries. A collaboration between both universities on programs such as the double-degree Master’s, is expected to provide an excellent educational platform for training personnel.

Because China has pledged to implement the national carbon emission peak by 2030 and reach carbon neutral by 2060, sustainable development has become an increasingly clear and profound consensus in the international community. Due to the general trend of economic globalization, it needs deeper international cooperation and joint efforts to solve environmental and ecological problems. China and Japan, the close neighbors, are the world’s second- and third-largest economies, which play a pivotal role in environmental and ecological protection in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world. Since established in 2005, the Cooperative Research and Education Center for Environmental Technology (CRECET) has played more and more important role in environmental field of Chinese-Japanese exchanges and cooperation. CRECET is an important platform for both sides to give full play to their advantages, carry out scientific research cooperation and talent training.
In terms of scientific research cooperation and exchanges, based on the joint research of CRECET, researchers from two countries have jointly applied for the International Cooperation Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Shenzhen International Science and Technology Cooperation Project, and the Overseas Research Joint Fund of the Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (SIGS), indicating that CRECET become an important platform for cooperation. In addition, CRECET organizes academic seminars every year to provide a platform for in-depth communication, project cooperation and industrial services for researchers and enterprises from two countries.
In terms of talent training, since 2008, the advanced environmental engineering distance education course (E-learning) offered by CRECET provides high-quality specialized courses about advanced environmental development for Master’s and Ph.D. students from Tsinghua University, Kyoto University, and University of Malaya. While enhancing the consensus on environmental protection development between China and Japan, the courses provide an exchange platform for mutual learning, joint discussion, in-depth research and joint progress. CRECET annually organizes internships between China and Japan to increase the mutual understanding of environmental education, environmental policy formulation, and environmental protection enterprise development, and play a positive role in cultivating international talents with global competence. In addition, Tsinghua University and Kyoto University signed a Double Degree Program of Environmental Science in 2018, and students have achieved significant improvements in international vision and global competence. The first batch of double degree students have successfully graduated, which indicates important talent training results of the educational cooperation between two universities.
In the future, with the further implementation of the Shenzhen Socialist Pilot Demonstration Zone and the Greater Bay Area development plan, as well as the further advancement of the international school-running and international cooperation of SIGS, CRECET will get stronger development support and broader development prospects, which can provide the foundation for deep cooperation between Tsinghua University and Kyoto University in more fields.

Professor of Tsinghua University (Vice-director)
Yuntao Guan

The Cooperative Research and Education Center for Environmental Technology (CRECET) was established at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (SIGS) (former the Graduate School of Tsinghua University) at Shenzhen in 2005. CRECET was authorized as one of the on-site laboratories of Kyoto University in 2018. Since CRECET was established, through the common efforts of the faculty, staff, and students of Kyoto University and Tsinghua University, with their complementary strengths, each university has created new education models. In 2019, Tsinghua SIGS officially unveils, and the new established Institute of Environment and Ecology which focuses on six research areas, including urban environment and compound ecology, industry and special environmental protection, land and sea interactive environmental protection, regional cross-media complex pollution and environmental health, big data and system management of ecological environment, climate change and future ecological environment protection, can open more channels and directions for the cooperation between the two universities in the next five-year plan.
Although there is an impact of the coronavirus disease, the work of CRECET and scientific research and educational activities between two universities still work well. In 2020, the 15th Kyoto University-Tsinghua University Symposium on Research and Education of Environmental Engineering was held successfully. Besides the staff and students of the two universities, more than one hundred people from Chinese and Japanese environmental companies attended the seminar with active discussion on the progress of Kyoto University’s overseas laboratories, Double Degree Program of Environmental Science between the two universities, and the introduction of the latest academic achievements. Even during the epidemic period, the Double Degree Program will still be carried out in an orderly manner, and the first batch of double degree students have successfully graduated, which provided useful experience on the educational cooperation between two universities.
Growth of CRECET has been inseparable from the sincere cooperation and joint efforts of teachers and students from Tsinghua University and Kyoto University, as well as environmental protection officials, experts, and enterprises from both sides. CRECET is positioned as a platform for environmental technical cooperative research, joint education, and business exchange between China and Japan. After entering the new five-year plan, against the background of the national deployment to promote the construction of the Greater Bay Area, and the signing of the comprehensive strategic cooperation framework agreement between Shenzhen municipal government and Tsinghua University, CRECET will continue to fulfill its beneficial role as platform and window. It will strengthen business cooperation, promote joint education, and increase non-governmental exchange, forming broader partnerships. Finally, a new mode of environmental-discipline cooperation will be developed, and a new situation, involving mutual benefit for both sides, will be created.