BERLIN, April 23 -- There is a small, elite group of Chinese living in Germany -- ethnic Chinese professors teaching in German universities. They met last weekend in Muenster to share ideas to help strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in science and education between Germany and China.

In their own words, they want to act as an "intellectual gas station" and a "bridge-builder" for this purpose.

Prof. Gu Xuewu, chair in International Relations and director of Center for Global Studies of Bonn University since 2009, now heads the Society of Ethnic Chinese Professors in Germany. He said at the seventh annual meeting of the society that the membership of the group has grown to 47 from 12 during its founding eight years ago.

The expanding membership indicates that the German academic community is increasingly open to foreign scholars on the one hand, and Chinese scholars are becoming increasingly established here on the other hand, he said.

The annual forum is a platform for member professors to share their individual experiences in higher education and research projects joining German and Chinese resources, Gu added.

German academic representatives attending the gathering agreed that as research and education become increasingly globalized, it is important for scholars from different countries to pool their ideas together to achieve a win-win situation.

To promote bilateral research cooperation, the Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC) was established in 2000 as a joint venture of the German Research Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Ingrid Kruessmann, German director of the SGC, told the professor meeting that as bilateral cooperation intensifies, it is increasingly desirable to establish an advisory committee to provide expert advice for both planning and funding mechanisms for research cooperation projects between Germany and China.

Hannelore Bossmann, representing the German Academic Exchange Service, told the forum that while there are about 25,000 registered Chinese students studying in Germany annually, there are only about 8,200 German students studying in China.

Due to rising importance of China in Germany, it is important to raise the number of German students in China through cooperative projects, she said.

Steffen Mehlich, in charge of sponsorship and network at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, presented latest statistics of foreign research fellowships of the foundation at the meeting.

He said the impressive annual applications and approval rate of research fellowships concerning China indicate that quality of made-in-China research talents has been on the same level with major developed countries such as the United States and Japan.