ACTIVITIES :: International Relations :: Dialogue Coop :: China

China

In December 2010, DG INFSO held its 2nd Policy Dialogue with MIIT, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in Brussels. The outcome was a more balanced give-and-take result, where we agreed to:

Endorse and continue work of current Expert Groups in IoT/Future Internet/IPv6(Dir. D and F)
Increase cooperation in Future Internet research and innovation platforms(Dir. D)
Develop a joint declaration on IPv6 and implementation projects to strengthen IPv6 deployment(Dir. F)
Facilitate the sharing of information of European /PRC CIOs as well as relevant government agencies on introducing ICT in traditional industry(Dir. A)
Explore joint research on areas such as cloud computing. (add other possible areas, e.g. photonics)(Dir. D + other Dir.)
Promote exchange of personnel on informatisation of traditional industry(Dir. H)
Explore the possibility of collaboration between EU and PRC mid-level cities to develop “green digital cities”, including on bench-marking(Dir. H)
Develop cooperation on global standards for green and smart transport(Dir. G)
Disseminate results of EU green and smart transport research projects in China(Dir. G)

Three months later, in March 2011, the second of DG INFSO's policy dialogues with the Chinese was held in Brussels with MOST, the Ministry of Science & Technology. The agenda focused on:

Reciprocity between China's access to EU's FP R&D programmes, and EU's access to China's 863 and 973 R&D Programmes
Research network connectivity
High-performance computing
Cloud computing
Future Internet / Internet of Things / IPv6
Future and Emerging Technologies

Participations by organisations based in China have strongly increased from 20 in FP5 (all in the IST Programme) with EU funding of €331 000 to 118 in FP6 (105 IST, 13 e-Infrastructures) with a total EU funding of €8.3 million. In FP7 until now, 35 Chinese organisations have participated (32 in ICT, 3 in e-Infrastructures) with a total EU funding of €3.0 million. In recent years, DG INFSO had projects supporting ICT R&D cooperation with China.

Several governmental agencies offer science and technology research funding to the researchers at central level. The major funding agencies are the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the China Scholarship Council (CSC) affiliated to the Ministry of Education. Each funding agency provides a variety of programmes, which serve the strategic aims of the country and meet the needs of different research areas. MOST is the major funding agency of the central government that supports several national level science and technology programmes. The main MOST programmes, which are theoretically (partially) open to European researchers, and which are of particular interest from the perspective of ICT, include the following: National Basic Research Programme (973 Programme), National High-Tech Research and Development Programme (863 Programme), National S&T Major Projects. Information on access of European researchers and research organisations to these programmes is unreliable, with the Chinese side claiming that it is significant and the European side insisting that it is very limited. Language barriers and IPR issues are cited as the main obstacles for European participation in the Chinese programmes. MOST also points out that it funds an "international collaboration" programme where a number of EU entities are represented, but little information is known about this.

Useful documents:

The EU-China Trade Policy project was renewed early 2011 for another five-year period (September 2010-August 2015). The project was The EU-China Trade Project was officially inaugurated by Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Ciolos on 24th of March 24, 2011in Beijing, and aims at reforming China's trade policy. It benefits from funding from the EU Budget to the tune of €20 million and an additional contribution from the Chinese government of €5 million.