November 20, 2023: visitors from China: Hou Suyun, the Mayor of Linshu County, visited us with a small delegation and colleagues from our partner Synergie

Today, we were visited by a high-ranking delegation from Shandong province in China. The County Mayor of Linshu County, Mrs. Hou Suyun, accompanied by the Director of Linshu Economic Development Zone, Mr. Wang Shaolong, and the Director of Linshu County Industry and Information Bureau, Mr. Cui Guangxiang, invited by the Chairman of Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd., Mr. Li Yuxiao, visited Dr. Georg Ebert's company Synergie GmbH to explore ways of future collaborations in the field of plant biostimulants for sustainable agriculture. Dr. Ebert and his colleague, Dr. Lu Yin-Bandur, had then suggested a visit to the University of Münster, in particular to meet with our team. Prof. Moerschbacher gave an overview of our work on developing reliable plant biostimulants and biopesticides based on second and third generation chitosans, and with other, synergistically acting bioactives. He also presented our past, current, and future activities towards the foundation of start-up companies by our alumnae and alumni as a means to facilitate the translation of fundamental research results into marketable products. This aspect was then further explained by Dr. Anne Vortkamp, who introduced the REACH Euregio Start-up Centre through which our university encourages and supports such activities. And of course, Anne also mentioned her own planned start-up, AgriBluBio. These initiatives met with great interest, particularly the fact that there are special offers for female start-up founders. This seems an area in which China can learn from us, while we could probably learn from them how to quickly take positive funding decisions for projects that we deem important and worthy.