On the evening of September 22, Nankai University held a communication meeting regarding the Tracetex International Ph.D. Program. We had the honor to invite Mr. Che Weimin, Minister-Counselor from the Chinese Mission for Educational and Cultural Affairs to the EU and Prof. Zeng Xianyi from the ENSAIT Textile Institute – University of Lille Nord de France. This meeting was also joined by directors from Graduate School of NKU, International Affairs Office, School of Artificial Intelligence, as well as directors from Soochow University.

    The meeting started with Minister-Counselor Che Weimin briefing us on the duty of the Chinese mission to the EU and its previous work on educational and cultural affairs. A detailed overview of the Tracetex international Ph.D. Program under the Marie Curie Action (one part of EU's Horizon 2020) was later given by Professor Zeng Xianyi. The head of Graduate School of NKU, Director Jiang Yawen introduced other joint programs that NKU established with European universities and voiced her support for the Tracetex International Ph.D. Program.

    It is learned that the predecessor of Tracetex is SMDTex, an International Ph.D. Program started in 2012 and selected under the Marie Curie Action in 2014. Three Ph.D. degrees from involved universities would be awarded to candidates who meet the requirements of the International Ph.D. Program. The research themes of Tracetex include “Innovation”, “Sustainable Development”, “Green Supply Chain Management”, “Environment Assessment”, “Risk Assessment”, and “Quality Tracking Model”. With the industrial application on its mind, the Tracetex International Ph.D. Program sets out to explore a cross-cutting and inter-disciplinary training mode so that complementary advantages from different universities are maximized, attracting outstanding applicants.