EU and China conclude agreement in four areas of medical research

The European Commission and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have signed a collaboration agreement covering four areas of medical research, the Commission has announced.

The projects selected will be jointly funded by the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme and China. The four areas concerned by this first call for projects concern diabetes, infectious diseases, proteomics and Chinese traditional medicines.

The EU will provide financing of between Euro 8m and €10m, which will be added to the Chinese financing. Figures for the Chinese contribution have not been given.

This is not the first time that China has participated in research programmes financed by the EU. Under the Commission's sixth research framework programme, which finished last year, China participated in no fewer than 31 projects, several of which are still underway. Several of these projects concern severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The novelty of the new agreement lies in the fact that this time the Chinese have agreed to participate in the financing of research projects and that they have also accepted the rules governing the seventh European framework programme for these projects.

One of the conditions required is that the research consortiums be made up of teams in Europe and in China. The EU will finance the research carried out in Europe while the Chinese Academy of Sciences will fund the research carried out in China.

The duration of the projects is generally between three and five years, but the collaboration is likely to be extended to other areas of medical research, according to the European Commission.