1.1 China-New Zealand Intergovernmental Science and Technology (S&T) Cooperation Projects
Fields: Food science, health and biomedical science, environmental science
Number of funded projects: 3
Total funding amount: RMB 5 million
Other requirements: Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
1.2 China-Israel Industrial Technology R&D Cooperation Projects
Fields: Unlimited. Joint R&D of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, medicines, public hygiene and prevention and control technologies is encouraged.
Number of funded projects: up to 10
Total funding amount: RMB 20 million
Other requirements:
- The lead applicant must be an enterprise.
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Israeli contact: Nofar Hamrany, Tel.: +972-3-5118117, E-mail: hamrany@innovationisrael.org.
1.3 China-Israel Intergovernmental Joint Research Projects
Fields:
- Medical devices;
- Adaptation of agriculture to climate change.
Number of funded projects: up to 10
Total funding amount: RMB 20 million
Other requirements:
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- The lead applicant must be a research institute or college/university in China or Israel, and enterprises can only be involved as participants.
- Project implementation period: 2 years.
- Israeli contact: Yehudith Nathan, Tel.: +972-2-5411145, E-mail: yehudith@most.gov.il.
1.4 China-Japan Intergovernmental S&T Joint Committee Projects
Fields: New materials, information and communications technology (ICT), and life science (including biotechnology)
Number of funded projects: 30
Total funding amount: RMB 90 million
Other requirements:
- In Japan, it is only open to national universities, public universities and research institutes (excluding Japanese companies).
- The Japanese participants do not need to submit the project proposal during the pre-application stage. During the project proposal defense, the Japanese participants should submit the application materials as per the requirements of the local competent authority.
1.5 MOST-JICA Joint Research Projects
Fields: Environment (including energy), healthcare, disaster reduction and prevention
Number of funded projects: 10
Total funding amount: RMB 30 million
Other requirements:
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Japanese partners can only involve enterprises incorporated in Japan.
- Both sides of the project should file an application. Find more about the Japanese contact at: https://jica.go.jp/china/office/others/pr/20200901.html.
1.6 China-South Korea Large-scale Intergovernmental Enterprise-University-Research Institute Collaboration Projects
Fields: Biotechnology, ICT
Number of funded projects: 2 (one in biotechnology, one in ICT)
Total funding amount: RMB 18 million
Other requirements:
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid. There must be at least one enterprise at the Chinese side in the project.
- Project implementation period: no more than 3 years.
- South Korean contact: SangHa Woo, National Research Foundation of Korea, Tel.: +82-2-3460-5702, E-mail: woosh@nrf.re.kr.
1.7 China-South Korea Intergovernmental Joint Research Projects
Fields: Biotechnology, ICT, renewable energy, medicine, aerospace, climate change (adaption)
Number of funded projects: 6
Total funding amount: RMB 6 million
Other requirements:
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid;
- Project implementation period: no more than 3 years.
- South Korean contact: SangHa Woo, National Research Foundation of Korea, Tel.: +82-2-3460-5702, E-mail: woosh@nrf.re.kr.
2.1 China-Mongolia Intergovernmental Joint Research Projects
Fields: Farming and animal husbandry, logistics system and cross-border e-commerce, water environment protection, comprehensive utilization of mineral resources, biological medicine
Number of funded projects: 12
Total funding amount: RMB 18 million
Other requirements:
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Mongolian contact: MUNKHTUYA Lkhamsuren, officer of Science and Technology Policy Department, Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sports of Mongolia, Tel.: 0976-51-260325, 976-99056252, E-mail: munkhtuya@mecs.gov.mn.
2.2 China-South Africa Intergovernmental Joint Research Projects
Fields:
- Intelligent manufacturing;
- Educational technology (application of ICT in education);
- Clean energy;
- Transportation
Number of funded projects: 15
Total funding amount: RMB 30 million
Other requirements: The project implementation period shall not exceed two years. Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
2.3 China-South Africa Intergovernmental Joint Research Flagship Projects
Field: Traditional medicine
Number of funded projects: 1
Total funding amount: RMB 3 million
Other requirements: The project implementation period shall not exceed two years. Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
2.4 China-Egypt Intergovernmental Joint Research Projects
Fields:
- Renewable energy;
- Water;
- Food and agriculture;
- Hygiene;
- ICT.
Number of funded projects: 10
Total funding amount: RMB 20 million
Other requirements:
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Egyptian contact: Dr. Sherif Zein El Abrdin, E-mail: sherifzein888@yahoo.com.
2.5 China-Arab States Joint Laboratory Projects
Fields: Modern agriculture, ICT, population health, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, energy, transportation, environment, resources, marine science, new materials, aerospace, disaster prevention and relief, etc.
Number of funded projects: up to 10 (two at most for each country in principle)
Total funding amount: RMB 35 million
Other requirements:
- Enterprise-university-research institute cooperation projects are encouraged.
- Project implementation period: generally 3 years.
- Partner countries: Arab states (namely, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Egypt, Palestine, Bahrain, Djibouti, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan and Comoros).
- The applicant should provide, within 90 days of the release of these Guidelines, an official letter of approval from the partner country’s relevant authority for the joint laboratory project, which should be addressed to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) by the partner country’s embassy in China. The letter should specify the project partners from both countries, the name of the joint laboratory, the support provided by the partner country’s relevant authorities for the joint laboratory project, and the contact persons (Download approval template from https://service.most.gov.cn/kjjh_tztg_all/zn/0930.html). The applicant should also inform the partner country’s relevant authority that this letter of approval is for application only and the approval of the project shall be subject to a review. A China-UAE joint laboratory on artificial intelligence should obtain an official letter of approval from the Artificial Intelligence Office of the UAE Prime Minister’s Office or other departments authorized by the Office.
- The applicant should fill out and submit the China-Arab States Joint Laboratory Construction Plan (download template from https://service.most.gov.cn/kjjh_tztg_all/zn/0930.html) for the application, together with a cooperation agreement on joint laboratory co-construction signed by the supporting organizations of the laboratory in both countries. The project partners shall sign documents, such as an agreement, a letter of intent, a memorandum or a letter of certification, which clarify the ownership of prospective intellectual property and the gains from commercialization of the project results in compliance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations (attach such documents to the cooperation agreement, or specify IP-related provisions in the cooperation agreement).
- The partner organization of the counterpart country should be a research institute, college/university or enterprise which has been registered for over 3 years outside China. It should be an independent legal entity with standard operation and management procedures, leading resource advantages in the relevant field, strong R&D capacity and qualified R&D conditions. It should have a long history of stable cooperation with the Chinese partner organization.
2.6 China-Singapore Intergovernmental Joint Research Program
Fields: Joint R&D on vaccines, treatments, and detection & diagnosis technologies for infectious diseases (including COVID-19);
Number of funded projects: up to 4
Total funding amount: RMB 10 million
Other requirements: Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid. The project implementation period should not exceed 3 years.
2.7 Research and Innovation Cooperation Program under the EU-China Co-funding Mechanism for Research and Innovation Cooperation
Fields:
- Agriculture, food and biotechnology;
- Environment (including but not limited to sustainable urbanization, climate changes, etc.);
- Transportation;
- Aviation;
- New-generation information networks: 5G communication technology, optical communication technologies, central processing unit (CPU) technologies, Internet of Things technologies, virtual reality technologies, quantum computing, big data technologies;
- Intelligent and green manufacturing: high-end numerically-controlled machine tools and intelligent robots, power equipment, next-generation semiconductor, additive manufacturing, new energy equipment, micro-nano fabrication, gas turbines;
- Safe, clean and efficient modern energy: clean coal utilization technologies, offshore wind power technologies, smart power grid technologies, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, nuclear energy utilization and nuclear decommissioning technologies;
- Advanced, effective, safe and convenient health technologies: bio-pharmaceutics, precision medicine, high-performance medical devices, prevention and treatment of serious infectious diseases (including fighting against COVID-19 with technological approaches), antibiotic resistance, regenerative medicine, medical big data, medical robots, aging service technologies, traditional Chinese medicine;
- Marine equipment: marine engineering equipment and hi-tech vessels, deep-sea oil and gas, natural gas hydrates, and deep-sea operation;
- Space: space equipment, space science and technologies, satellite application technologies (minisatellites and payload technologies), and remote sensing technologies (deep-space exploration, satellite imaging, atmospheric sounding, lunar-based observation);
- New materials: graphene technologies, nanomaterials, high-performance structures and composites, advanced semiconductor materials, advanced light alloy materials, advanced functional and intelligent materials, catalytic materials;
- Research on large research infrastructures;
- Public security: Disaster warning and handling, food and drug safety testing.
Number of funded projects: 30
Total funding amount: RMB 90 million
Other requirements:
- The Program under the EU-China Co-funding Mechanism for Research and Innovation Cooperation aims to support Chinese participants in the priority areas covered by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Work Programme.
- The applicant should submit a joint proposal with its European partner under the EU’s Horizon 2020 Work Programmes 2018-2020. Projects under other Horizon 2020 annual Work Programmes are not covered by this call for proposals.
- Each Horizon 2020 project should only involve one Chinese applicant. Multiple Chinese participants in a single Horizon 2020 project should negotiate to decide one of them as the Chinese applicant. The Chinese applicant should be a participant in the corresponding Horizon 2020 project, which means it should be listed among the participants in the Horizon 2020 project.
- The Chinese and European partners should carry out research and innovation cooperation that helps complement each other’s advantages and achieve mutual benefit.
- The Chinese applicant should submit an English version of the Horizon 2020 proposal and a Chinese translation of the project budget and research items that involve the Chinese partner, and should make sure that the total budget for the Horizon 2020 project includes the budget at the Chinese side. The amount of funding applied to the MOST from the Chinese applicant should not exceed the budget indicated by the Chinese partner in the corresponding Horizon 2020 proposal. The research items should include the research items involving the Chinese partner that are specified in the English proposal.
- Program implementation period: generally 2-3 years.
- Work program 2018-2020 for EU partners in specific areas: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-work-programme; overview of the EU-China Co-funding Mechanism for Research and Innovation Cooperation: http://ec.europa.eu/ research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/hi/h2020_localsupp_china_en.pdf.
FAQs and answers on the EU-China Co-funding Mechanism for Research and Innovation Cooperation:https://eeas.europa.eu/sites/eeas/files/questions_answers_on_eu-china_ co-funding_mechanism_for_research_and_innovation_cooperation_0.pdf; EU contact E-mail: Delegation-China-Scitech@eeas.europa.eu.
2.8 China-Spain Intergovernmental S&T Cooperation Projects
Fields:
- Smart city;
- Production technologies, including smart manufacturing;
- Bio-medicine and health technologies, including medical devices, biotechnology applications or pharmaceutical technologies for the treatment of global pandemics;
- Clean technologies, including technologies related to environment, renewables or water treatment;
- Modern agriculture, including fishery technologies, food processing and food safety;
- Advanced materials.
Number of funded projects: up to 15
Total funding amount: up to RMB 45 million
Other requirements:
- Project implementation period: 2-3 years in principle.
- Industry-driven and market-oriented joint R&D and technology cooperation projects will be supported by both countries. Enterprise-university-research institute cooperation is encouraged. The Spanish applicant or at least one of the Spanish partners should be an enterprise, which should provide the corresponding funding as required by the Spanish Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- In addition to the submission of application materials as required herein, the Chinese applicant should also cooperate with the applicant at the Spanish side in completing the English application form, which is to be submitted by the Spanish applicant to the CDTI. Visit https://sede.cdti.gob.es/ for more details.
- Both the Chinese and Spanish applicants shall submit an intellectual property agreement or a cooperation agreement with specific intellectual property provisions for the application.
- Spanish contact: Mr. Carlos Quintana; Tel.: +34 915810489; E-mail:china@cdti.es.
2.9 China-Belgium-South Africa Intergovernmental S&T Cooperation Projects
Fields: Interaction between biodiversity, climate changes and hygiene
Number of funded projects: 4
Total funding amount: RMB 5 million
Other requirements:
- In principle, the project implementation period shall not exceed three years.
- The projects shall involve at least two of the three fields, namely, biodiversity, climate change and hygiene.
- Each project shall be jointly applied for by at least three partners from the three countries, respectively. The three sides shall submit the application materials to the agency designated by the local authority of science and technology. Any application submitted by only one or two sides shall be invalid.
- The English version of a joint application confirmed and signed by all the partners from the three countries is required for project application (download link: https://service.most.gov.cn/kjjh_tztg_all/zn/html).
- The project applicant must be a research institute or college/university.
- The research project should take gender issues into account.
3.0 China-Belgium (Walloon) Intergovernmental S&T Cooperation Projects
Fields:
- Biotechnology (particularly COVID-19-related fields);
- ICT and microelectronics;
- Aerospace;
- Materials science and nanotechnology;
- Agricultural science.
Number of funded projects: 10
Total funding amount: RMB 10 million
Other requirements:
- In principle, the project implementation period shall not exceed three years.
- Chinese and Belgian partners shall sign a specific intellectual property agreement and other necessary documents.
- The partners shall submit the application materials to the authorities in charge of call for proposals in their respective countries. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Any enterprise that participates in the project should provide a minimum funding amount equivalent to the government grants it obtains;
- Belgian (Wallonia) contact: Aboubacar Charkaoui, E-mail: acharkaoui@wbi.be; Patricia Duvieusart, E-mail: duvieusart@wbi.be.
3.1 China-Austria Joint Research Projects
Fields:
- Medical and health research (including traditional Chinese medicine) (particularly COVID-19 related fields);
- Quantum information science;
- Information and communications technology;
- Intelligent manufacturing technology;
- Renewable energy and low-carbon technologies;
- Food, agriculture and biotechnology;
- Environment, smart cities and sustainable urbanization.
Number of funded projects: 15 (including 7 COVID-19 related projects at most)
Total funding amount: RMB 30 million
Other requirements:
- Chinese and Austrian partners shall each make a roughly equal investment in the project;
- The partners shall sign a specific intellectual property agreement;
- In principle, the project implementation period shall not exceed two years;
- Any enterprise that participates in the project should provide a minimum funding amount equivalent to the government grants it obtains;
- The project shall encourage the participation of young and female researchers;
- Chinese and Austrian partners shall submit the application materials to the competent authorities in their respective countries. The Austrian competent authority is the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. Austrian contact: Ms. Konstanze Pirker, E-mail: wtz@oead.at.
3.2 China-Finland Intergovernmental S&T Cooperation Projects
Fields:
1）Energy
Including but not limited to:
- Smart grid
- Cleaner production technology
- Resource and energy efficient manufacturing
2）Health
Including but not limited to:
- Data and analysis
- Epidemiology and pandemic related research
- Life sciences
3）Smart mobility
4）Sustainable manufacturing
Proposed funds and number of projects:
The number of funded projects in energy shall be no more than five with a maximum total fund of RMB 25 million. The number of projects in health, smart mobility and sustainable manufacturing shall be no more than 10 with a maximum total fund of RMB 30 million.
Other requirements:
- Project partners shall include at least a Chinese organization and a Finnish one, and the lead applicant shall be an enterprise as required by the Finnish government. Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Enterprise-university-research institute cooperation and joint proposals initiated by multiple enterprises are encouraged.
- The participating enterprise at the Chinese side should provide a minimum funding amount equivalent to the government grants it obtains. For the requirements for the Finnish partners, see relevant guidelines provided by Finland.
- Chinese and Finnish partners shall complement each other’s strengths, pursue equality and mutual benefits, and make a roughly equal investment, respectively.
- The partners shall clarify the division of responsibilities and labor, and sign a specific intellectual property agreement.
- In principle, the project implementation period shall not exceed three years, and communication between the parties is encouraged.
- Finnish contact: Kari Hiltunen, Tel.: +358 50 4726 597, E-mail: hiltunen@businessfinland.fi; Mika, Tel.: +86 1348274 6884, E-mail: mika.klemettinen@businessfinland.fi; Yu Chun, Tel.: +86 138 0174 4271, E-mail: elisa.yu@businessfinland.fi.
3.3 China-Germany Intergovernmental Smart Manufacturing (Industry 4.0) Cooperation Projects
Fields:
- Smart product service and supporting system for smart manufacturing (Industry 4.0)
- Research on multinational interoperability rules for Internet-based collaborative manufacturing
- Energy and resource efficiency improvement for the sustainable development of manufacturing
Number of funded projects: 4
Total funding amount: RMB 32 million
Other requirements:
- Small and medium enterprises are encouraged to apply.
- To promote enterprise-university-research institute cooperation, the China-Germany cooperative projects shall be conducted in a “2+2” model. In other words, the project partners shall involve at least a research institute and an enterprise from each country. In principle, each enterprise should provide a minimum funding amount equivalent to the government grants it obtains. Where feasible and meaningful, the enterprises are encouraged to participate in the standardization activities in early stages.
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- The partners shall sign documents such as an agreement or a letter of intent, and clarify their respective contributions, division of labor and IP rights distribution in R&D.
- Scientific findings are expected to be transformed into standards and applied in the industry.
- The English version of a joint application confirmed and signed by all the partners from both countries is required for project application (download link: https://service.most.gov.cn/kjjh_tztg_all/zn/0930.html).
- German contact: Matthias Kautt, Tel.: +49 1608949330, E-mail: kautt@kit.edu.
3.4 China-Germany Intergovernmental Electric Vehicle Cooperation Projects
Field:
- Safety and economic study of pure electric vehicles and key components based on operation data.
- Research on the development strategy and specification of electric vehicles (pure electric and hydrogen fuel cell) in scale applications.
- Study on the construction of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen refueling stations
Number of funded projects: 5-8
Total funding amount: RMB 25 million
Other requirements:
- To promote enterprise-university-research institute cooperation, the China-Germany cooperative projects shall be conducted in a “2+2” model. In other words, the project partners shall involve at least a research institute and an enterprise from each country. In principle, each enterprise should provide a minimum funding amount equivalent to the government grants it obtains.
- The partners shall sign effective documents such as an agreement or a letter of intent, and clarify their respective contributions, division of labor and IP rights distribution in R&D.
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Project implementation period: 2-3 years.
- German contact: Lucia Seissler, E-mail: lucia.seissler@now-gm bh.de; Adam Mutwil, E-mail: mutwil@bmvi.bund.de.
3.5 China-Germany Intergovernmental Antibiotic Resistance Cooperation Projects
Fields: Occurrence, spread, control and reduction of antibiotic resistance. The two proposed fields are as follows.
- Innovative research on antibiotic resistance of environmental reservoirs.
- Innovative research on resistant bacteria in humans, livestock, pets, and food.
Number of funded projects: 4
Total funding amount: RMB 16 million
Other requirements:
- The clinical research projects should adopt the existing bio-banks and/or cohorts, and shall not recruit additional patients.
- The partners shall sign effective documents such as an agreement or a letter of intent, and clarify their respective contributions, division of labor and IP rights distribution in R&D.
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Project implementation period: no more than 3 years.
- German Contact: Dr. Sabine Puch, Tel.: +49 228/3821-1423, E-mail Puch@dlr.de; Petra Bauer, Tel.: +49 228/38 21-1404, E-mail: petra.bauer@dlr.de.
3.6 China-Hungary Intergovernmental Joint R&D Projects
Fields:
- Public health (including epidemiology);
- Neuroscience;
- Artificial intelligence;
- Physics.
Number of funded projects: up to 4
Total funding amount: RMB 6 million
Other requirements:
- The project implementation period is 2021 to 2023, and shall not exceed three years in principle.
- Enterprises are encouraged to take part in the joint R&D projects.
- Both sides of the project shall submit the application materials to the local authority in charge of the call for proposals. Any unilateral application shall be invalid.
- Hungarian contact: National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary, Ms. Orsolya Küttel, E-mail: kuttel@nkfih.gov.hu, Tel.: +36-1-8965505.