To maintain and further develop the already established academic leadership in this field, IPMBAB is strengthening the partnership with the Mainland counterparts while extending a global international collaboration network. About eight years ago, team members of IPMBAB was among the first group of Hong Kong scientists who initiated close and deep collaborations with important agricultural institutes in China (such as China Hybrid Rice Center led by the 'father of hybrid rice' Prof. Longping Yuan, The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Yangzhou University) and more recently with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a top plant biology research institute in China. As a demonstration of important international partnership, project of IPMBAB is a component of the ProVitaMinRice Consortium in the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

IPMBAB will be a hub to cluster expertise and establish research networks. Targeting important national and international plant biology and agricultural issues, the Institute positions herself as a key internationalized research institute in China. The establishment of IPMBAB should serve as a good example to position Hong Kong as an important, advanced, and internationalized city of China, taking advantages of the expertise resources gathered in Hong Kong as well as her infrastructure and international networks while working hand-in-hand with the China counterparts.

要維持並進一步發展在學術界的領導地位，本研究所會加強與國內單位的夥伴關係，同時亦會擴展廣泛的國際合作網絡。約八年多前，本研究所的成員率先展開了與內地重要農業機構的緊密和深入合作（例如由雜交水稻之父袁隆平院士領導的國家雜交水稻中心、中國農業科學院、揚州大學等。）最近亦開展了與中國頂尖植物生物學研究機構中國科學院遺傳及發育生物研究所的合作。在國際方面，其中一個突出例子是成為 Bill 及 Melinda Gates 蓋茨基金會全球健康重大挑戰項目中ProVitaMinRice研究組的一分子。

本研究所將會是人才匯聚及研究網絡建立的重要中樞，針對中國及世界面對的主要植物學及農業問題，定位為建基中國面向世界的重要國際化研究中心。其建立能配合香港作為中國的一個重要、先進及國際化城市之角色，利用香港匯聚的專才及良好制度與國際絡，與國內夥伴攜手並進。

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