Academy sustains foreign exchange programs

The Chinese Academy of Sciences, China's highest academic and consulting institute for science and technology, has funded large numbers of research staff exchanges and cooperative research programs between China and other G20 members over the past five years.

Statistics from the academy's Bureau of International Cooperation showed that from 2011 to 2015, the academy spent 130 million yuan ($20 million) on funding the President's International Fellowship Initiative to support distinguished scientists, visiting scholars, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students from overseas to visit, study or conduct research at higher education or research institutions in China.

Almost three-quarters of the funding went to those from members in the G20, according to the bureau.

The academy has also provided financial support worth 190 million yuan to international cooperative programs, among which almost 60 percent were joint efforts with developed countries, such as with the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Japan.

For example, the Thirty Meter Telescope is a proposed astronomical observatory with a large optical telescope located in Hawaii. China, together with the US, Canada, Japan and India, participated in the construction of the telescope, which is expected to be the largest of its kind after construction is completed in the 2020s.

Another key project is a China-Japan advanced photon technology lab, which was set up to conduct joint research on laser-based micro and nano processing and device fabrication technologies.