The Chinese-German Centre for Science Promotion is to celebrate its opening with a ceremony in Beijing on October 19th 2000. Founded jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the centre is to promote scientific collaboration between the two countries in the field of basic research and create optimum framework conditions for academic exchange, especially among young researchers. The focus of the activities is on the natural and engineering sciences.
Already in 1986, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the NSFC signed a partnership agreement providing for the exchange of scientists. Based on this agreement, close co-operation has since developed between the two organisations. Today, DFG is a close partner of the National Natural Science Foundation in international collaboration. The NSFC exclusively supports applications from the natural, engineering and management sciences. In its structure, it has oriented itself on the structure and mission of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the American National Science Foundation.
The initial notion of setting up a joint institution to promote science goes back to 1994. Just twelve months later, both sides signed a preliminary agreement. Concrete planning started in 1996, while the foundations were laid two years later. The German side contributed a total of five million Deutschmarks to the construction of the centre. Funding was provided by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Germany's Donors' Association for the Promotion of Science and the Humanities).
The opening of the new building marks the start of work at the centre. Activities are to focus on supporting and promoting joint research projects of Chinese and German scientists. Preparing this type of co-operation will be one of the centre's chief tasks. It is to support the researchers in looking for suitable partners. It can fund the preparation and elaboration of the projects and see to the financing of so-called "Rainbow Conferences" aimed at fostering links between top researchers and qualified junior scientists of both nations. Joint research projects may also evolve from these conferences. However, the centre will not be responsible for the actual financing of the projects. This is where Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the National Science Foundation of China come in, with each of the two organisations operating according to its own guidelines. A further task of the centre is financing the costs of joint research results arrived at by Chinese and German scientists. The projects do not need to have been initiated by the centre. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the NSFC are to provide the funds annually required to finance the joint activities.
The new institution in Beijing is to serve future collaborative ventures as a local base. In this role, it is above all intended to enable personal scientific exchange between researchers of the two countries. Several lecture and seminar rooms, a lecture hall for 350 people, a small library, modern communications facilities, a video conferencing system as well as computer facilities provide the prerequisites to this end. In addition, there are a number of apartments the researchers can use during their stay. The new rooms are also available to other German - and in the long run also European - science organisations to see to their bilateral tasks.
To mark its opening, the centre in Beijing will be presenting the exhibition "Begegnungen - Chinesisch-Deutsche Zusammenarbeit in der Wissenschaft". This presentation draws a link between the first scientific contacts in the 16th century and current research ventures. The exhibition will be shown in a number of cities.