The inception meeting for the NERC-TaSE River basins as ‘living laboratories’ for achieving sustainable development goals across national and sub-national scales project was held at Nankai University between 7th – 9th May 2019. Partners from the University of Glasgow, Loughborough University, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), and Nankai University were in attendance. A series of opening remarks from the Director of the Office of Scientific Research, Deputy Director of the Office of International Affairs, and the Vice Dean of the College of Environmental Science and Engineering at Nankai University officially opened the meeting, and was followed by a presentation from Mr Jin Xu, program manager of the Division of European affairs, Bureau of International Cooperation of the NSFC.