The Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) announced on November 30 their joint decisions to allocate 15 million HK dollars (1.92 million US dollars) to fund 14 projects in 1999-2000.

Selected jointly by the NSFC and the RGC after a process of detailed evaluation under the Joint Research Scheme, the funded projects cover research into microchip technology, the interaction between waves and the marine environment.

The agreement to establish a joint research scheme with an annual funding of about 15 million HK dollars was reached between the NSFC and the RGC in November 1998.

The joint scheme is aimed at encouraging collaboration between researchers in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland in the areas of information technology, life sciences, new materials science, Chinese medicine and management science.

The annual contributions of the RGC and the NSFC are 10 million HK dollars (1.28 million US dollars) and 5 million yuan (602,000 US dollars) respectively. The scheme is being run on a pilot basis initially for three years, and supports actual research expenses in addition to travel and subsistence costs. (Xinhua)