In fact, this year's Lecture Series was originally planned for the spring of 2020 but unfortunately the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to cancel those lecture sessions. However, after much consideration, the China Platform decided to proceed with the organization of the" 2020 Lecture Series" this autumn with the aim of putting our UGent-China cooperation and some of the latest developments in/with China in the spotlight in our own typical UGent manner.
Consequently, 3 lecture sessions will be hosted this autumn with several experts from within and outside UGent, who are happy to share their experiences and to go into debate with the audience.

Unfortunately, considering the latest developments with regard to the COVID-19 situation, I regret to inform you that the China Platform has decided not to host the live lecture sessions in Het Pand for what the first two lectures is concerned:

• 23 October: session “Research co-operation with Chinese partner institutions: joint labs as added value”
• 6 November: lecture “The dragon-slayer, the panda-hugger and the strategist: Europe and great power politics”

Your health and safety are namely our main concern and consequently we will proceed with online sessions offered through MS Teams instead.

Concerning the 3rd lecture “Car manufacturing with Chinese partners: the Corona challenge” by Mr. Geert Bruyneel from Volvo Cars, we would still like to give ourselves some time in order to see how the situation will further evolve in order to take a final decision about the format of this lecture at a later stage.

Please register through following links, also when you plan to follow the live stream.

• 23 October 2020
• 6 November 2020
• 4 December 2020

We look forward to seeing you at our lecture sessions!