In the Chinese Ambassador’s Residence
On Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to visit the Chinese Ambassador’s Residence for a reception hosted by the Ambassador. The reason for the reception was a visit by a delegation of leading Chinese academics and representatives of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). This trip was part of a larger China-Ireland Co-operation that was initiated by the two governments last year covering a number of areas including technology, software, agriculture, culture, education and tourism.
One of the statistics that absolutely floored those of us from SFI was that NSFC, this year alone, has already received over 66,000 applications for funding. Think about that – 66,000 individual proposals. Amazing. I would estimate that SFI received under 1,000, and most of that number is made up of applications to the RFP programme
A number of SFI people are heading over to China in June on a reciprocal visit, where I’m sure they’ll be very well looked after.