Switzerland and China strengthen research funding cooperation
During the visit of the President of the Federal Council, Schneider-Ammann, to China, the SNSF and its Chinese partner organisation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a view to strengthening research cooperation.
In the course of his three-day state visit to China, the President of the Federal Council, Johann Schneider-Ammann, and his delegation of forty science and business representatives met with politicians in Beijing. Following official talks between Schneider-Ammann and his counterpart Xi Jinping, five treaties were signed between the two countries, including a "Memorandum of Understanding on Collaboration between National Natural Science Foundation of China and Swiss National Science Foundation".
Strengthening research collaboration
In the agreement, both research funding organisations state their willingness to strengthen scientific cooperation, particularly in the form of collaborative projects involving researchers from both countries. Vice President Katharina Fromm signed the agreement on the SNSF side, while Shen Yan, her counterpart at the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), signed on the Chinese side (see photograph).
Ongoing collaborative projects with China
Under the Sino-Swiss Science and Technology Cooperation (SSSTC 2016) agreement, the SNSF and the NSFC have already launched a call for proposals for Joint Research Projects (JRPs) with China. The approximately 50 applications received by the end-of-March deadline will be evaluated in the coming months. The two organisations plan to finance up to 11 projects. JRPs allow researchers in Switzerland to collaborate with a partner in China.