Agence de presse Xinhua | 19. 03. 2026
Facing a shared global challenge of aging populations, China and France are deepening their collaboration in research focused on healthy aging. A high-level seminar hosted by the Sino-French Interdisciplinary Research Network on Healthy Aging recently took place in Shenzhen, China, bringing together over 90 experts and researchers from both countries.
The seminar, themed “Promoting mutual enrichment between fundamental aging research and clinical applications,” was co-organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), the Chinese Geriatric Society, the French Embassy in China and the Chinese Embassy in France. This event builds upon a declaration of intent for Sino-French cooperation on healthy aging, signed between CAS and INSERM in 2025 during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to China.
He Hongping, Vice President of CAS, stated that China and France possess complementary strengths in healthy aging research. He explained that the creation of this interdisciplinary research network will provide an expanded platform for scientists from both nations to collaborate and address key scientific and technological challenges related to the aging process.
Didier Samuel, President of INSERM, noted that the seminar will strengthen the complementarities between the two countries in this field and contribute to building a sustainable model of Franco-Chinese cooperation on healthy aging. This collaboration is particularly critical as populations worldwide are living longer, increasing the need for innovative approaches to age-related health concerns.
During the event, Chinese and French experts engaged in in-depth discussions on topics including brain health and cognitive frailty, aging and cancer, and multidimensional measurement of aging. These discussions fostered broad consensus, laying a solid foundation for collaborative research that is interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and interinstitutional between the two countries in the field of healthy aging.
