Prof. Zuoyan ZHU, Vice President of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), paid a courtesy visit to Prof. Motoyuki Ono, President of JSPS, on June 2, 2005.

NSFC and JSPS have been conducting a bilateral program to support joint research projects and joint seminars between Chinese and Japanese scientists since 1996. Furthermore, these two agencies and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) established a new "A3 Foresight Program" which supports large-scale joint research projects, aiming to create a top-level research hub in Asia. This program is to be conducted by scientists from the three countries and a call for proposals was given this year.

In the meeting, the delegation of NSFC and JSPS talked about the number of applications received for the above two programs and the timing for the next A-HORCs meeting.

Both JSPS and NSFC hope to see these programs contribute to the continued strengthening of the bonds of colleagueship between their respective countries’ researchers and to bear rich fruits.