Australia and China commit to joint science fund

On the back of the Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s visit to China, the two countries have made a commitment to strengthen science tied through a special research fund.

Each government will contribute $9 million over three years to a new Australia-China Science and Research Fund to promote collaborative research.

China is not only a growing economic powerhouse, but has also increased its scientific output dramatically over the past two decades.

Since 1993, China’s share of worldwide scientific publications rose from 4.4 per cent to 10.2 per cent, according to a report published by the UK Royal Society last month.

Making projections based on those figures suggests China could overtake the United States as the lead producer of scientific publications as soon as 2013.

China is currently the third most important partner for Australian researchers and Australia is China’s sixth highest partner as reflected in scientific publications.