Information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology will
beat the forefront of future scientific co-operation between China
and the European Union (EU).
The plan was announced on Friday in a joint declaration, in
which the two sides agreed to follow through on their strategic
partnership by deepening co-operation in research and technological
development.
Dubbing the agreement a "knowledge-based" strategic partnership,
China's Minister of Science and Technology Xu
Guanhua and EU Commissioner for Science and Technology Janez
Potocnik announced the declaration at the conclusion of a two-day
forum on science and technology strategy. The meeting was part of
joint China-EU celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of
diplomatic ties.
In the declaration, specific objectives included increasing
public and private investment in co-operation projects, promoting a
scientific culture and ensuring protection of Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR).
The two sides agreed that further co-operation will be based on
the guiding principle of ensuring mutual interest and overall
balance between China and Europe.
"In a world that is global, the best way to increase innovation
is for China and Europe to actively and collaboratively engage with
each other," the declaration stated.
Along with the declaration, the two sides also made public a
further paper, identifying joint social development difficulties
China and the EU face in the coming years.
To ensure sustainable development, both are interested in
technologies concerned with environmental protection, information
and communication, food and agriculture, transportation,
urbanization and health.
"We share many joint development and research priorities and
that's the basis for deeper co-operation," said Xu.
At the forum, research circles and business representatives
agreed that China and the EU share great potential for the
development of third generation (3G) wireless communication
technology.
Wu Hequan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering,
said the China has placed a high priority on research into 3G
wireless communications.
He said partnership between EU and China research organizations
and companies had already been set up.
"We want to see a wider range of international co-operation in
this area," Wu added.
Meanwhile, Chinese and European scientists have joined hands in
observing outer space via a hexahedral network of research
satellites, which is primarily aimed at depicting space magnetic
storms and ensuring manned space exploration.
The leading scientist of the Double Star Program, Liu Zhenxing,
said Friday at?the forum that his program coordinated well
with Cluster II, a four-satellite space observation program
sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) that has gathered a
huge amount of new data.
In the Double Star Program, one satellite orbits the Earth
passing over both poles while the other flies over the equator. One
orbiter reaches more than 60,000 kilometers from the Earth,
unprecedented for Chinese satellites.
The Cluster mission is currently investigating the small-scale
structure of the Earth's plasma environment, such as those involved
in the interaction between solar wind and magnetospheric plasma,
global magnetotail dynamics, cross-tail currents, and the formation
and dynamics of the neutral line and of plasmoids.
The Double Star Program covers the space area close to Earth,
which is hard to detect by the four Cluster satellites.
Chinese and European scientists jointly made the 16 research
instruments loaded on the two Chinese satellites.
"Both of us benefit from the cooperation in developing research
facilities and exploring space," said Liu, who is an academician of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The CAS Center for Space Science and Application Research and
the ESA organized a joint research team, which is led by Liu and
another two co-chairs, one Chinese and one European.
The Chinese and European scientists have agreed to share all
data collected by the four Cluster satellites and China's double
stars.
"We also have full access to scientific data gathered by 30
ground observation stations, which are affiliated to Cluster II,"
Liu said. "Those data help Chinese space scientists do what they
were not able to do in the past."
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2005)