The Call for 2018 International Students from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) has started. There are 6 types of sholarships for international students, including Doctoral Programs, Master's Programs, Visiting Students Programs, CAS-TWAS President's Fellowship Programme for Doctoral Candidates, CAS The Belt and Road Master Fellowship Programme. Application deadline for the next fall semester (starting in September 2018) is March 31th, 2018.

The present announcement is distributed by Digital Agriculture Division of Prof Wu Bingfang at CAS in Beijing, where research focuses on the following themes:

1. Global crop monitoring and forecasting (CropWatch). We publish regular global crop condition bulletins (http://www.cropwatch.com.cn/) and have an interest in food security,  crop modelling, ground and satellite-based monitoring indicators, regional crop forecasting, GIS, data dissemination and other related subjects;

2. Climate change impacts, adaptation and related issues (such as biomass and water resources assessment and mapping), especially in Africa;

3. Land cover mapping and vegetation monitoring at regional scale. We completed the China National Land Cover Database (ChinaCover for 1990, 2000 and 2010) with 30m resolution and 38 classes with an overall accuracy of about 85%  (ChinaCover2010). The 2000-2010 time series include fractional vegetation cover, LAI, FPAR, NPP, phenology and forest above-ground biomass estimation using airborne LiDAR and scaling models;

4. Evapotranspiration management and monitoring (ETWatch), including Basin-wide ET Management based on basin-scale water consumption balance, allowable water consumption, identification of water consumption tradeoffs, competition and feedback among different water sectors.

If you have an interest in agricultural and environmental monitoring, water and energy resources, remote sensing, GIS, agrometeorology, climate change or food security (including economic aspects) and if you are tempted by one of the broad subjects listed above, we would be pleased to hear from you. kindly send your CV Shuyi (Ms) with a copy to Prof Wu (wubf@radi.ac.cn)  to indicate your technical field and preferences.  We can help you with the preparation of a proposal to join the Digital Agriculture Division at CAS in Beijing.