November 22nd witnessed the Official Launch and Training on HORIZON 2020 in China, the new European Commission Framework Program for Research and Innovation for 2014-2020. Mr. Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director General for Research and Innovation, the EU and Dr. Xing Jijun, Deputy Director General of China Science and Technology Exchange Center addressed the event which attracted 250 participants from research communities, the EU Delegation and embassies of European countries to China.
DDG Strohmeier spoke highly of Chinese contribution to past FPs and encouraged new participation in H2020 from Chinese research community. DDG Xing Jijun pointed out that China and the EU enjoyed a sound foundation for S&T cooperation, and as the EU strove for a strategic growth and China deepened its reform in an all-round way, China looked forward to strengthening high-level S&T cooperation with the EU, its member states and other European countries. He also remarked that H2020 would become an important platform for realizing the aforementioned goals.
DragonStar Project partners from China and the EU provided a practical training on how to participate and succeed in Horizon 2020 and took questions from Chinese and European research stakeholders who demonstrated strong interest in H2020 projects.
H2020 funded research and innovation with over €70 billion, up by 36% against Framework Program Seven (FP7). It is hoped that Horizon 2020 could become an important platform for China-EU S&T cooperation, and China’s active participation could make China’s research, innovation and S&T programs more open to international partners.