IHB’s director Prof. Jindong ZHAO signed an agreement for Inter-Institution Cooperation with Prof. Gilles Fourtanier, president of Paul Sabatier University on Oct. 20, 2009. Both sides will conduct research in the disciplines of science and technology, especially in the field of hydrobiology and will focus on researches of fish ecology and fishery ecology in the context of sustainable development. Besides, both sides will promote graduate students and scholars exchanges and joint supervision of theses. They will also provide scholarship and assistance to scholars regarding opportunities available in each country.  

The signing ceremony was chaired by IHB’s deputy director Prof. Xudong XU. IHB Profs. Zhongjie LI, Jiashou LIU, Huanzhang LIU Songguang XIE and Xianfeng ZHANG (head of Research Business Office) together with Prof. Juan-Jorge Martinez-Vega, vice president of Paul Sabatier University, Prof. Sovan Lek from the Laboratory of Evolution and Biodiversity of Paul Sabatier University and Prof. Jacques Fleck, counsellor for scientific and technological affairs of the French Consulate General in Wuhan were present at the ceremony. 

The French delegation led by Prof. Fourtanier also paid visit to the Museum of Aquatic Organisms, Freshwater Algae Cultural Collection and some labs at IHB. 

Paul Sabatier University (abbreviated as UPS, also known as Toulouse III) is one of the oldest universities in Europe. It was named in honor of Paul Sabatier, winner of the 1912 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Located in Midi-Pyrénées, the largest region of metropolitan France by area, it offers a broad array of programs in biology, environment, medical care, mathematics, physics, chemistry and athletics. Being one of the top universities in France, it boasts 12 labs of the Centre Nationa de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research) which is a government-funded research organization under the administrative authority of France’s Ministry of Research.