2021

15-16th November 
BETR Symposium

The BETR Nanjing Symposium this November will be a hybrid meeting, which means that our Chinese delegates will have the meeting in person in Nanjing, hosted by the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Due to the time difference between China and the UK, the UK delegates will join into the meeting through zoom very early in the morning, London time 7am. 

The BETR research programme is an example of collaboration not only between scientists from the UK and China, but also the funding bodies of both countries. Researchers from  three funded projects, Perturbation of the Earth System at the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition and the resilience of the biosphere (PPT), Ecosystem resilience and recovery from the Permo-Triassic crisis (Eco-PT), and The evolution of vegetation and biodiversity change during the Paleogene and early Neogene (UMBRELLA), have worked closely together, not only on the scientific frontiers, on early career researchers training, but also on the outreach of palaeo-research to the general public and the next generation. Before the COVID outbreak in early 2020, the BETR programme organised two training workshops for early career researchers in China (Xishuangbanna and Wuhan) and one science meeting in London. 

The joint part of the symposium will have four sessions, two sessions each day. Even though, the combined part of the Nanjing Symposium is time-limited (4.5 hours per day) because of the time difference (8 hours), it will still offer a great opportunity for the three involved projects to showcase key parts of their scientific findings and bring the audience up-to-date with the research done through the BETR and relevant projects over the past 3 to 4 years. Finally, the discussion session will give all participants an opportunity to look towards the future of UK-China collaboration in biosphere research more generally with representatives from the respective funding bodies, NERC, UKRI China and NSFC, who will provide their perspectives and answer questions.

Detailed programme, timetable and the zoom link to join the meeting are as below. If you are interested, please download it.

Organisation team
Maoyan Zhu (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, China Academy of Sciences)
Zongjun Yin (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, China Academy of Sciences)
Graham Shields (University College London)
Ying Zhou (University College London)
Paul Wignall (Leeds University)
Jinnan Tong (Chinese University of Geosciences, Wuhan)
Alex Farnsworth (Bristol University)
Tao Su (Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, China Academy of Sciences)
Robert Spicer (Open University)
Paul Valdes (Bristol University)
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