Move on innovation funding lauded

Partnership stands to produce breakthroughs that will benefit both sides, says EU research head

A European Commission official has hailed a change in Chinese government thinking that will give the country's scientists who work with the European Union access to joint research funds.

That is likely to produce breakthroughs by the two partners in research and innovation, says Robert Jan Smits, the commission's director general for research and innovation.

China is keen on supporting its scientists through the co-funding mechanism to support joint projects between China and Europe, he says.

The two have long worked together on research and innovation, but until recently Chinese scientists who wanted to work in EU programs could not obtain automatic funding from the Chinese government. That was an impediment to joint work, Smits says.

"So it's very important that the Chinese government has decided to make funds available to finance Chinese scientists working together with European scientists. It's a great boost for our collaboration and very well timed. Leaders of some programs will be able to apply under the co-funding system."

Smits was in China recently speaking on the 2015 Research and Innovation Tour: Where Europe and China Connect. Its aim is to explain to Chinese research institutions and companies projects for 2016-17 for the EU program Horizon 2020. The tour came to the end of its journey at Guangzhou's Sun Yat Sen University on Nov 18. More than 2,000 Chinese researchers and innovators in 16 cities from 15 provinces learned about the manifold opportunities and great benefits of collaboration with Europe.

Horizon 2020 is the EU's biggest research and innovation program, and the commission plans to invest 16 billion euros ($17 billion) in it over the next two years. The program supports projects from when they are first conceived until they are put to use and marketed. It also invests in training researchers, and includes exchanges between industry and academia.

"China and Europe face many similar problems," Smits says. "We have aging populations, and problems relating to energy security, food safety and the environment, and scientists need to work together to find solutions."

The Chinese government and the EU agreed this year to set up co-funding on research and innovation for joint projects between European and Chinese universities, research institutions and companies.

Up to 200 million yuan ($31.5 million; 29 million euros), will be made available annually by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology on the Chinese side for the benefit of entities in China that will take part in joint projects with European partners under Horizon 2020.

The European Commission says it expects to continue spending more than 100 million euros a year for the benefit of entities in Europe in Horizon 2020 joint projects with Chinese participants, institutions and companies.

Chinese authorities are keen to encourage Chinese participation through co-funding in advanced manufacturing, agriculture and biotechnology, aviation, energy, food, health, information and communications technology, space, sustainable urbanization, transport, water and exchanges of young scientists.

Xu Jie, a counselor with the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, says leaders of more than 400 projects in China have applied for Horizon 2020 funding.

"Horizon 2020 has helped many researchers realize their dreams and achieve new finding," Smits says.

Italy's ambassador to China, Ettore Francesco Sequi, says China and Europe should work more closely together on research and innovation. China's investment in research and innovation has been growing rapidly, and now about 2 percent of its GDP is invested in it, so there is huge potential for collaboration, he says.

Collaboration in science between China and the EU used to be essentially one way, Smits says, and a more balanced partnership will get the best Chinese and European brains working together.

"What I see very clearly is China's commitment to become the knowledge economy of the world, which means you want to bring high value-added products from the market, you want to create high-quality jobs, and that means science and innovation."

Smits sees internationalization as the main challenge for Chinese science and innovation. It is often difficult for the EU to take part in Chinese programs, and China needs to be much more open about foreigners working on Chinese national programs. China would also do well to have many foreign students studying at its universities and foreign staff working for them, he says.

"If China wants to continue to develop new knowledge, you need to open up more, you need to have more faculty from outside China, more students from outside China. Between 40 percent and 60 percent of students at some European universities come from outside the continent."

Europe's strength is its basic research and the sheer volume of ideas, but sometimes their commercialization is poor. China's problem is not commercialization, but getting basic ideas off the ground to become part of the economy, he says.

chenyingqun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 11/20/2015 page22)