On 9 – 11 October 2011,The Nordic Centre (http://www.nordiccentre.org)hosted the Sino-Nordic Welfare Seminar (SNoW), organized through the Nordic Centre of Excellence Programme on Welfare Research and financed by NordForsk. SNoW 2011 addressed the themes like: (1) Labour markets, migration/immigration and social rights; (2) Ageing populations as a challenge to social security systems; (3) Norms and institutions. The participants presented papers which will be published after the seminar. They will also serve as background material for future cooperation.
The Nordic Centre of Excellence Programme on Welfare Research was established by NordForsk (www.nordforsk.org) in 2007. The goal of the centre is to create a scientific environment of high quality. The centre gathers experts from all Nordic Countries working together in a jointly defined research program also including exchange of students and scientists.
Professor Stein Kuhnle from the University of Bergen and the Hertie School of Governance was the coordinator for this first SNoW seminar. He was very happy about the interest this Nordic initiative had met in China, reflected in the fact that so many Chinese experts participated. Half of the participants were from Chinese universities and research institutions and altogether 20 institutions from China and the Nordic countries were present.
Last year, at the 15th anniversary of the Nordic Centre at Fudan University, the Chinese translation of the book titled ‘The Nordic Welfare State’ (eds: Stein Kuhnle, Klaus Petersen, Pauli Kettunen and Chen Yinzhang) was launched, demonstrating the sustained interest in this topic in China. It also underscores the relevance of establishing cooperation with Chinese counterparts in this area.
Counsellor for Science and Higher Education at the Norwegian embassy, Ms Kari Kveseth, participated at the seminar. ‘This Nordic initiative is important and serves as an example of how smaller Nordic research groups can work together to be more visible in the globalised research marked. This is perhaps of particular relevance to cooperation in China’, she underlined. ‘I am particularly glad for this initiative, which fully demonstrates how we can cooperate in the Nordic Countries, and this is a good example of the ideas behind the Nordic Welfare Model.’ The next SNoW seminar will be held in Helsinki in 2012.