RBG Kew signs new Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew) has entered into a new 10-year agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding co-signed by Kew Director Richard Deverell and CAS Vice President, Professor Hongping He.

The document extends the scope of the previous Kew and CAS 20-year partnership and is designed to foster research, knowledge exchange and innovation between the two scientific institutions. CAS is a comprehensive research and development network, and higher education centre, which brings together scientists and engineers in China to address both theoretical and applied problems. Its standing relationship with Kew is one of the organisation’s longest.

Speaking at the ceremony at Kew, Richard Deverell, Director of RBG Kew said: ‘We are delighted to extend our partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, bringing together the best of Kew’s scientific and horticultural resources and knowledge and combining it with the Academy’s own world-leading expertise. It comes at a time when nature-based solutions to the many challenges we face today, from climate change to biodiversity loss, are more desperately needed than ever before, and through this collaboration we hope to foster new relationships, make new discoveries and accelerate progress towards a greener future.’

China is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth (home to 10% of the world’s plant species, 14% of animals and 20% of fish). The renewed agreement will allow for an ongoing and growing exchange of expertise, knowledge and now plant material, helping us to jointly address some of the biggest challenges facing nature globally.

Professor Hongping He, CAS Vice President, said: ‘In this historic Garden of scientific excellence, where vibrant life flourishes in every corner, may our collaboration bear abundant fruits and nurture outstanding talents just like these magnificent gardens. On behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all colleagues who have contributed to this partnership. We look forward to another decade of collaboration.’

Previous work arising from the partnership between the two institutions resulted in the Mapping Asia Plants (MAP) project, which brought together plant names and geographical distribution data to provide an important resource for research and conservation. Kew and the Guangxi Institute of Botany also collaborated on research revealing plant life in China's caves. Further collaboration included work with Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, and in the fields of bioinformatics and taxonomy.

The new agreement signed today has expanded the remit to include horticultural collaboration for knowledge and plant exchange, as well as ongoing access to data in Kew’s Library & Archives and Economic Botany Collections, which are important for both scientific research and cultural heritage.

ENDS

For further information contact: pr@kew.org

About the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world-famous scientific organisation, internationally respected for its outstanding collections and scientific expertise in plant and fungal diversity, conservation, and sustainable development in the UK and around the globe. Kew’s scientists and partners lead the way in the fight against biodiversity loss and finding nature-based solutions to the climate crisis, aided by five key scientific priorities outlined in Kew’s Science Strategy 2021-2025. Kew Gardens is also a major international and top London visitor attraction. Kew’s 132 hectares of historic, landscaped gardens, and Wakehurst, Kew’s Wild Botanic Garden and ‘living laboratory’, attract over 2.5 million visits every year. Kew Gardens was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2003 and celebrated its 260th anniversary in 2019. Wakehurst is home to the Millennium Seed Bank, the largest wild plant seed bank in the world and a safeguard against the disastrous effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. RBG Kew received approximately one third of its funding from Government through the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and research councils. Further funding needs to support RBG Kew’s vital scientific and educational work comes from donors, memberships and commercial activity including ticket sales. For tickets, please visit www.kew.org/kew-gardens/visit-kew-gardens/tickets. In the first six months since implementing a new accessibility scheme for those in receipt of Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Legacy Benefits, Kew has welcomed over 100,000 visitors with £1 tickets.

About Kew Science
Kew Science is the driving force behind RBG Kew’s mission to understand and protect plants and fungi, for the well-being of people and the future of all life on Earth. Over 550 Kew science staff work with partners in more than 100 countries worldwide to halt biodiversity loss, uncover secrets of the natural world, and to conserve and restore the extraordinary diversity of plants and fungi. Kew’s Science Strategy 2021–2025 lays out five scientific priorities to aid these goals: research into the protection of biodiversity through Ecosystem Stewardship, understanding the variety and evolution of traits in plants and fungi through Trait Diversity and Function; digitising and sharing tools to analyse Kew’s scientific collections through Digital Revolution; using new technologies to speed up the naming and characterisation of plants and fungi through Accelerated Taxonomy; and cultivating new scientific and commercial partnerships in the UK and globally through Enhanced Partnerships. One of Kew’s greatest international collaborations is the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, which has to date stored more than 2.4 billion seeds of over 40,000 wild species of plants across the globe. In 2023, Kew scientists estimated in the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report that 3 in 4 undescribed plants globally are already likely threatened with extinction.