EU R&D Framework Program receives 459 Chinese applications in 2007

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua)-- The European Union's (EU) 7th Research and Development Framework Program (FP7) received 459 Chinese applications among the 5,100 submitted from non-EU countries in 2007, sources with European Commission Delegation in Beijing said here on Tuesday.

About 10 to 15 percent of the applications will be selected as part of China-EU cooperation programs under the FP7, Georges Papageorgious, the minister counselor of the EC Delegation in Beijing, told a workshop on international science and technology cooperation between China and the EU.

Launched in 1984, the Framework Program is now the world's largest research funding program. It's seventh edition started last year and will run to 2013 with an increased budget of 53 billion euros (78.8 billion U.S. dollars).

Papageorgious said the European Commission recently started a batch of new calls for proposals for 2008 in FP7 and China had shown particular interest to the following topics:

Transport planning and traffic information system in cities; CO2 capture and storage capacity building; foot-and-mouth disease improvement; vaccine developing; and vaccination strategies.

He added that during the sixth EU Framework Program which ended in 2006, around 300 Chinese institutes, universities and companies took part in nearly 200 projects, making the country the second most active international partner in FP6 after Russia.