China and Commission sign health research agreement
The European Commission and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have signed an agreement to start collaborative research projects in the field of health. The new cooperation agreement was reached during a workshop held in Shanghai in April between European and Chinese high level experts. They identified four areas of health research for which closer collaboration would be beneficial. These are the fields of infectious diseases; diabetes; traditional Chinese medicine including antimicrobial resistance; and protein science and proteomics. Other health research topics are expected to be selected at a later stage. Under the agreement, projects will be jointly funded by the Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) and the Chinese Government. This is unprecedented in the history of the EU's international science and technology (S&T) policy (INCO), where previously the costs of project partners from third countries (non EU Member States or Associated State) were covered by the research framework programme's budget. It is expected that in the first round at least one project will be funded in each area, with a support totalling between €8 to 10 million from the Commission for the research carried out in Europe. In addition, the CAS will provide funding for the research conducted in China. The agreement is also the first of its kind where the mechanism of project proposal selection will follow the FP7 evaluation system. Normally if public research funding agencies from third countries agree to pay for their scientists to participate in projects, they request that their rules for project evaluation are applied. Since the late 1980s, the EU has been engaged in scientific cooperation with China in various research fields. In 1998, leaders from the two regions formalised this cooperation with the signing of an S&T agreement, which was renewed in 2004. In recent years, relations have been developing rapidly. In addition to China joining the two major EU projects: ITER, the experimental thermonuclear reactor, and the Galileo satellite navigation project, the country has also increased its participation in the research framework programmes to become one of its largest third country partners. Under FP6, there are now over 150 Chinese organisations participating in more than 130 joint research projects, amounting to €900 million. In the 'Health' thematic area of FP6, Chinese participants are involved in a total of 31 research projects, many of which are ongoing, with the EU contributing €3.7 million for the Chinese partners. Among these projects are many which are working on severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, for which the Commission launched a specific call in 2003 in response to the outbreak of a SARS epidemic. The agreement was initiated within the framework of the EU and China Science and Technology Year, which was launched in October 2006
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