To address researchers in China with a strong existing link to European RTD institutions is crucial to boost a winning collaborative research. Contacts exist through

• European researchers already based in China
• Chinese researchers educated in Europe
• Chinese researchers already co-operating in a successful manner with peers from the west
• Chinese and European researchers active in special fields of interest to both sides, e.g. urbanization, global health, energy,…

Therefore Dragon-Star partners on 8 May 2013 jointly organized a 2.5 hour training session at Ningbo University of Nottingham. The University is a pioneer in bridging the gap between researchers from both sides and is the first western university to set up a subsidiary in China. It is not placed in the metropolitan cities but nevertheless is a very successful venture. Therefore the place seemed ideal for a workshop, also to carefully listen to the state of knowledge about European research and what kind of information is needed.

The trainings session was carefully including the following topics:

1. Introduction (About Dragon-Star & support actions of the EU Commission)

2. History of European collaborative research

3. Sample of recent EU FP6 & 7

4. Lessons learned of from EU FP7 – Strength & Improvements needed

5. Horizon2020: (i) Background and key political papers, (ii) Structure, (iii) Finances

6. Sino-EU Co-operation

If your institute is interested in a similar workshop on site in China or in Europe, please announce your interest to info@dragon-star.eu . We are delighted to inform your researchers and motivate them to go for more international co-operations.