Stronger EU-China research collaboration agreed at highest level

Leaders from the EU and China agreed to move towards more strategic scientific cooperation through the launch of EU-China joint research projects when they met at the China-EU Summit on 28
November.

The leaders also acknowledged the significant participation of Chinese researchers in the first calls for proposals under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), and agreed to facilitate the
participation of European researchers in Chinese-funded programmes.

Both sides pledged to take all necessary steps to renew the China-EU Science and Technology Agreement, due to expire in December 2008. As a first step in this process, both sides will carry out
an assessment of their cooperation.

The agreements came at the end of the China-EU Science and Technology Year (CESTY), which both sides judged to have been a very positive experience. The initiative brought together researchers
and industry and showed an all-round willingness to strengthen existing scientific and technological cooperation.

Both the EU and China are partners in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project. Further strengthening their collaboration in the nuclear field, the summit saw an
agreement to establish a bilateral agreement between EURATOM and China, EURATOM being the European Atomic Energy Community. The bilateral agreement is intended to complement ITER.

Further pledges of closer scientific collaboration were made in the context of climate change. The leaders recognised the key role of technology in addressing climate change, and in particular
in mitigating greenhouse gas emission and implementing adaptation.

Both sides called for further progress within the China-EU Partnership on Climate Change, and in particular on research into near-zero emissions coal power generation technology through carbon
capture and storage. Both China and the EU will step up their efforts to further enhance cooperation in technology development and transfer, state the summit conclusions.