At a ceremony held Nov. 8 in Beijing, representatives from the ARC Center for Particle Physics in Australia (CoEPP) and the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in China signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish scientific exchange, collaboration and cooperation between the two organizations.

The agreement will allow scientists to share expertise and collaborate on a number of activities for mutually beneficial outcomes, including the planned Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC).

“Today we established the formal collaboration. It will benefit the development of high energy physics in both countries, especially the future large science facilities,” says IHEP Director Professor Yifang Wang.

IHEP is China’s premier research institute in particle physics, astroparticle physics and accelerator science. It manages a number of China’s major scientific facilities, including the Beijing Electron Positron Collider, the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the Daya Bay neutrino experiment.

CoEPP is Australia’s primary center for particle physics research and brings together researchers from the Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Monash. Its scientists work on Belle II (KEK), ATLAS (CERN) and lead the development of Australia’s Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, the country’s first deep underground physics laboratory.

“This formalization of a partnership with IHEP is a great step for Australia,” says professor Geoffrey Taylor, director at CoEPP. “We share a great many research interests and I look forward to many years of successful collaboration with our colleagues at IHEP.”