The Institute of Coastal Physical Geography and Ecological Security, relying on the faculty and the Master's Degree Program in Physical Geography of the Department of Geography and Spatial Information Technology at Ningbo University, traces its origins back to the Institute of Coastal Zone Resources and Environment, which underwent a name change in September 2023 during the transition from the fourth to the seventh employment term. Currently, the institute has 12 full-time faculty members (including 4 professors, 3 associate professors, and 5 lecturers; 4 doctoral supervisors; 11 Ph.D. holders, all of whom are young teachers under the age of 45), 2 postdoctoral researchers, and over 40 graduate students pursuing master's degrees. The institute encompasses experts in the fields of geography, ecology, meteorology and climatology, as well as hydrology and water resources, forming a multidisciplinary research team with a rational structure in terms of education, professional titles and age, and characterized by stable and efficient research capabilities and academic standards.
The institute is currently undertaking over 30 research projects, including 10 national-level projects, 12 provincial and ministerial-level projects, and 5 municipal-level projects, among others. It has garnered more than 10 provincial and ministerial-level awards, such as one Third Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, three projects under the "Yongjiang Talent Attraction Program", one Zhejiang Provincial Youth Geographic Science and Technology Award, and one Henan Provincial Water Conservancy Science and Technology Progress Award. In the past three years, the institute has published over 110 research papers in prestigious domestic and international journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, Water Research, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Ecology, Functional Ecology, Journal of Geographical Sciences, Acta Geographica Sinica, Acta Ecologica Sinica, Journal of Natural Resources, Environmental Science, and Chinese Journal of Plant Ecology, among others, with over 90 being SCI-indexed articles. In addition, it has secured approximately 30 intellectual property rights in the past three years, encompassing invention patents, software copyrights, and new utility models.
The institute has established solid partnerships with renowned research institutions both domestically and internationally, engaging in substantial scientific research endeavors and graduate student cultivation. In collaboration with the Subtropical Forestry Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences, the "Ningbo University-Hangzhou Bay Wetland Ecological Station Graduate Education Practice Base for Physical Geography and Biodiversity" was established in 2022. In terms of international cooperation, the institute boasts long-term and stable collaborations and exchanges with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland; Aarhus University in Denmark (ranked top 100 globally); University of Kiel, Germany; University of Łódź, Poland; University of California, Riverside, USA; University of Mpumalanga, South Africa; Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany; and Ruhuna University of Sri Lanka. Jointly, they have presided over projects, organized international seminars, supervised doctoral candidates, and published over 40 collaborative research papers.
In the past three years, the institute has cultivated nearly one hundred graduate students, and has sent multiple graduate students to internationally renowned universities for visits and exchanges. These students have won prestigious awards such as the National Scholarship and the "Cao Guangbiao" Scientific Research Award of Ningbo University. Furthermore, graduates have received scholarships from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to pursue their doctoral degrees at the top 100 universities worldwide, including Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.