On June 25, 2024, the China-Romania Joint Laboratory for Cooperation in Agriculture was completed and officially inaugurated. The laboratory was jointly built by the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture (IEDA) under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (UASVM) in Bucharest. Wu Kongming, President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Chinese Ambassador to Romania Han Chunlin; Elena Tatomir, General Director of the Directorate General for Agricultural Policy at the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; and UASVM Rector Sorin Cimpeanu attended and spoke at the event.

The two sides hailed the laboratory's establishment as a significant milestone in China-Romania scientific and technological (S&T) cooperation, which plays a remarkable exemplary role. The laboratory has positively impacted Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and provided strong support for cultural exchanges, technology promotion, and production capacity cooperation between China and CEE countries. Moving ahead, the two sides will continue to enhance technological cooperation and exchanges in energy-saving and efficient protected agriculture in an effort to promote digital, intelligent, green and sustainable development. The joint laboratory will be built through the joint efforts of both sides into a hub that brings together international first-rate scholars in agriculture and fosters top-notch innovative talents in agriculture.

The establishment of the joint laboratory will further deepen China-Romania pragmatic collaborative research on agricultural S&T innovation. The laboratory will launch "small and beautiful" model projects and demonstration projects for high and new technologies in protected agriculture between China and CEE countries. In this way, it will advance the transfer, transformation and promotion of China's mature agricultural technologies in CEE countries, while upgrading agricultural technologies in CEE countries, thus giving new momentum to S&T and industrial development in protected agriculture in China and CEE countries through win-win cooperation.

After the opening ceremony, representatives from both sides visited the joint laboratory, where facilities such as an energy-saving greenhouse, a smart plant factory with LED, and an edible fungus factory fully capture the latest applications of Chinese science and technology in agriculture.

Since 2019, IEDA and UASVM have been working on the construction of the joint laboratory with support from the Chinese and Romanian governments. After five years of close collaboration, the two sides have developed complementary cooperation on technologies such as plant factories, energy-saving greenhouses, efficient protected cultivation, and intelligent environmental management. Platforms for Phase I and Phase II of the joint laboratory in Romania have been successfully completed and put into operation, including a 500-square-meter solar greenhouse, a 50-square-meter plant factory with artificial light, a 1,000-square-meter double-layer energy-saving greenhouse, and a 75-square-meter edible fungus factory.