Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has won four out of seven funded projects with Sino-Dutch Joint Scientific Thematic Research Program (JSTP) 2011.

"The aim of JSTP is to further sustain cooperation between Dutch and Chinese researchers based on an annual theme of common interest identified jointly by the partners," said Lu Yonglong, director-general of Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS.

The theme for the 2011 program is "medical devices in an aging society" and that for 2012 will be on "agriculture and food".

Four Chinese partners including Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, CAS and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) started cooperation on JSTP with Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) in 2008.

"The Netherlands will be investing 5 million euros in specific scientific research programs with China over the coming three years," said Dutch State Secretary, Halbe Zijlstra.

Zijlstra signed a new agreement with Chinese partners, according to which, each party will contribute an annual investment of 1.6 million euros to JSTP. Partners on the Dutch side include OCW, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science (KNAW).

"Doing researches in China is a nice experience. It has the fastest super computer in the world and they are building powerful telescopes," said Thijs Kouwenhoven, a Dutch researcher who has spent two years in Beijing with Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University.

"Besides scientific cooperation, the other important aspect of JSTP is to build a bridge for understanding and communication between the two cultures as well as to maintain friendship and respect among the researchers, " said Wang Lei, deputy director general, Bureau of International Cooperation, CASS.