On the morning of June 1, a seminar on strategic cooperation with regard to the Dongshan Swire Marine Station (hereafter referred to as Dongshan Station) was held at Xiamen University, which also marked the official inauguration of the station.

At the seminar, Xiamen University signed the strategic cooperation framework agreement respectively with Fujian Provincial Department of Ocean and Fisheries and the government of Dongshan County on the joint construction of the Dongshan Station. Meanwhile, a MOU regarding broader strategic partnership and academic exchanges was also signed by the State Key Laboratory of Coastal Marine Environment of XMU, Swire Institute of Marine Science, Research Center for Sustainable Development of Northeastern University, State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power & Mechatronic Systems, Zhongtian Marine Systems Limited and Standards Instrument Inc.

The main research mission of Dongshan station is to monitor the global climate and the influence of the environmental change caused by human activities on marine ecosystem, and the station will be built into a long-term and stable platform to monitor environmental factors on the sea-land-atmosphere interface, an open experimental base for marine science and technology, a research and test base for the marine observation instruments and a base for science education and teaching practice. Among other things,  it is hoped that Dongshan station will evolve into a base of international cooperation for marine observation and experiment.

From June 2 to 3, the 2^nd International Advisory Council of Dongshan Station will be held at the Xiangan Campus of XMU to discuss such topics as future system architecture, operational management, long-range planning and international cooperation pertaining to the station.

Edited by: Wang Xu