To stimulate international collaborations on genetic resources and germplasm, a signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS), Japan, and the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB), Chinese Academy of Sciences was held on April 26, 2012 in Beijing. Dr. Teruo Ishige, the President and Director General of NIAS and Dr. XUE Yongbiao, Director of IGDB signed the Memorandum.

The NIAS and IGDB will cooperate on exchanges of academic staff and research germplasm, joint seminars and conferences, and exchanges of scientific information, according to the Memorandum. The Memorandum specified the mechanism of cooperation and the fields the two parties shall collaborate, therefore laid the foundation for further substantive cooperation.

Director XUE hoped that IGDB would build a modern genebank for collecting, conserving and distributing genetic resources related to agriculture and food researches, including plants and animals and DNA resources with the NIAS’s help. President Ishige said that the signing of the Memorandum was just a begining, and the NIAS and IGDB must establish a win-win partnership with such common research fields in the near future.

The NIAS （http://www.nias.affrc.go.jp）is the largest basic life science research institute in the field of agriculture in Japan. The NIAS led the International Rice Genome Sequencing Project to complete the sequence of the first cereal genome in the last decade. The NIAS Genebank is a world class genebank for conservation of plants, microorganisms, animals and DNA materials related to agriculture. The NIAS Genebank actively participates in collaborative activities with other countries in relation to surveys and research agriculture-related genetic resources.