Prof. Christopher Secombes, director of the Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre, Aberdeen, UK, visited National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, on the afternoon of November 11, to deepen mutual understanding and broaden the engagement between two institutes.
NCKU President Huey-Jen Jenny Su extended her warm welcome to Prof. Secombes saying, 'We both institutes have already cooperated in some degree on fish health.'
Prof. Secombes, a comparative immunologist with a research focus on the immune system of fish, said, 'I'm here to undertake some research discussion with the group in NCKU about agricultural research particularly with fish health.'
He also said, 'We treat agriculture very important in the UK and it's particularly important in Scotland.'
Invited by the College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Prof. Secombes is interested in the research of fish breeding undergoing in NCKU. He said, 'New technology here is useful for us.'
'Technology is absolutely transferable even though fish species are different,' added Prof. Secombes.
President Su pointed out, 'We try to link particularly with our European partners and hoping that we can take in all the EU efforts, not so much for the funding directly, just so that we are not left alone in some corner and only work around for our own networking and resources, by taking in the whole system that we can better position ourselves.'
Prof. Secombes agreed with President Su and said, 'It sound like a good strategy.'
He continued, 'We have been looking at some of the possibilities to fund some programs of exchange visit so that we will have that extended funded.'
'I hope in the near future we can submit some applications than we will have more sound basis allowing both our staff and students to visit both institutions,' he added.