On April 2-3, Professor Saffa Riffat, Academician of the European Academy of Sciences, President of the World Society for Sustainable Energy Technology, and Director of the Institute of Sustainable Energy at the University of Nottingham, UK visited HBUT. On the morning of the 3rd, a meeting was arranged by the Department of International Relations between Professor Riffat and HBUT President Liu Defu, Vice President Li Dongsheng and Vice President Zhang Yingjiang also attended.

At the coordination meeting, the heads of each of HBUT's PI teams reported the main results of the cooperation with the British team in various fields during the past three years. Examples from 2016 to 2018 included, successfully applying for the “China-UK Bridge” international cooperation project for photovoltaic vacuum glass technology which secured funding of 4.2 million RMB from the Chinese government, jointly publishing research in respected publications, winning the “Rushlight” award for solar lighting and a World Sustainable Energy Technology Innovation Award.

During the same time period Prof. Riffat's team guided PI teams from HBUT during the application process for four national funding projects, construction of a carbon-free demonstration building and co-hosting the 17^th edition of the Sustainable Energy Technologies Conference.

Liu Defu pointed out that high-level international scientific research cooperation is extremely important for the development of colleges and universities. During the first stages of a cooperation both parties should work actively to strengthen understanding of each other’s methods to improve the quality of the scientific research output. He emphasized that international scientific research cooperation should always be guided by substantive projects and high-level output, with academic and scientific researchers as the main participants. He then added “our scientific research personnel should strengthen their ability to actively communicate with foreign teams”. During the course of the meeting it was also confirmed that the School of Science was the lead unit for strengthening cooperation with Prof. Riffat’s team in the latter part of our school.

After President Liu's speech, he and Professor Riffat held talks on the issues related to the strategic cooperation between the HBUT and the University of Nottingham. Liu Defu extended a warm welcome for Professor Riffat's to visit again in the future, praised the results of the preliminary cooperation between HBUT and the British team, and expressed his gratitude towards Professor Riffat and his team for their contributions. Professor Riffat briefly summarized the results of cooperation with HBUT, highlighted the current research direction of the research teams, and stated his hope to cooperate with HBUT again in the future in new projects.

Professor Riffat then made a speech stating that his team is currently working on a deep well farming project, the aim of which is to build vertical farms and grow crops using underground space such as idle or abandoned mines, tunnel openings, and civil air defense access. The whole system is characterized by utilizing idle land resources and reducing energy consumption; the plants being used have a short growth cycle and high yield. At present, the pilot in Europe has achieved good results and achieved the production of a variety of crops. As one of the pioneers of this concept, Prof. Riffat hopes to carry out in-depth cooperation with relevant teams at HBUT in the application and promotion of this technology, and launch a pilot in China. Liu Defu expressed his support and enthusiasm for the new concept and for a cooperation with Prof. Riffat's team, and hoped that the relevant teams at HBUT would get started on the pilot as soon as possible.

At the meeting, the two sides also indicated that they would promote a “2+2” undergraduate program between HBUT and the University of Nottingham and develop joint training and joint research projects for master's and doctoral students in key disciplines.

Another highlight of, Prof. Riffat's visit was a lecture entitled “Low Carbon Buildings and Sustainable Energy Technology” for teachers and students of the School of Civil and Architectural Environment. The teachers and students actively participated and the atmosphere was warm. Overall Prof. Riffat's visit was a huge success and has laid a solid foundation for further cooperation in the future.