The Eighth Meeting of Heads of Research Councils in Asia (A-HORCs) was held in Xi an on September 16th. Prof. Chen Yiyu, President of the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Prof. Motoyuki Ono, President of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Prof. Kyuhan Bae, Director General of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) headed their delegations at the presence. As the host, President Chen chaired the meeting.
The theme of the meeting is Science Planning. The three parties presented next 5-year perspectives of respective research councils and discussed on subjects such as funding plans and implementation of projects. They also discussed and reached consensus about the collaborative area of 2011 Northeastern Symposium and A3 Foresight Program of 2012 as well as the theme, time and place for the next A-HORCs.
Originally established jointly by NSFC, JSPS and KOSEF (Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, now named NRF), the A-HORCs meeting has become a regional meeting which takes place in China, Japan and Korea in turn once a year. The goal of the meeting is to provide an opportunity for the leaders of the three research organizations to meet regularly and discuss on subjects of common interests with a view to strengthen high level exchanges and collaboration in the field of basic research.
To promote Asia as a research center with worldwide influence, culture prominent talents and solve science-related problems of regional importance, NSFC, JSPS and NRF jointly established A3 Foresight Program at the 2nd A-HORCs meeting, through which to provide fund for the three countries scientists to do collaborative research work in selected areas.
Since the implementation of A3 Foresight Program started in 2005, the three parties in succession have co-funded 10 projects in the field of nanotechnology, biotechnology, climate change, advanced materials, epigenetic, renewable energy and so on.
