On Sept. 11th, 2014, signing ceremony of MOU on fire research was held among FM Global, State Key Laboratory of Fire Science (SKLFS) and Hefei Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT) at SKLFS. The MOU signing will be a milestone for further international cooperation between SKLFS and FM Global on the frontiers of fire research. Representatives from FM Global were Dr. Sergey B. Dorofeev, Research Director for Fire Hazards and Protection and Dr. Yi Wang, Group Manager of Fire Dynamics. Representatives from SKLFS were Prof. Heping Zhang (Director of SKLFS), Prof. Naian Liu (Vice Director of SKLFS), Prof. Jinhua Sun (Vice Director of SKLFS), and Prof. Weiguo Song. Prof. Shouxiang Lu (Executive Director of IAT) and Prof. Bing Wang (IAT Assistant Director) also attended the meeting. Prof. Naian Liu hosted the ceremony.

Prof. Heping Zhang spoke highly of this ceremony as a new and important start point for SKLFS-FM Global-IAT further cooperation. Dr. Sergey B. Dorofeev reviewed past collaboration with SKLFS and looked forward to more cooperation for sound, economy, practical results in fire experiment, insurance, regulation codes and standards, modeling and fire protection technology, etc. In past years, SKLFS cooperated in many aspects with FM Global research center. Dr. John de Ris, former Principle scientist of FM Global, was selected twice as China Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists and fulltime worked in SKLFS for over one year, during 2008-2011. Dr. Changjian Wang collaborated with FM Global for the study of chemical and physical models for development of FireFOAM software.

Prof. Naian Liu read out all the details of MoU. Then Dr. Sergey B. Dorofeev, Prof. Heping Zhang and Prof. Bing Wang signed on the MoU. According to this MoU, three parties would cooperate on fire experiment and modeling, especially further development of fire measurement technology and advanced fire simulation software, aiming at setting up an international fire modeling center in SKLFS. Plans of mutual visiting, training, and academic communications are also outlined.