China-UK cooperation on e-science is proceeding smoothly, participants at the Second China-UK e-Science Workshop heard at its opening Tuesday in Kunming, capital of western China's Yunnan Province.
Scientists from the two countries, including Malcolm Atkinson, the director of the United Kingdom's e-Science Research Center, attended the workshop and read papers.
E-science covers projects through which achievements in scientific research can be shared by scientists all over the world via the second generation Internet.
China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the UK's Trade and Industry Department reached an agreement on governmental cooperation on e-science in October 2001. The first workshop was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2002.
According to Li Yixue, a researcher with Shanghai Life Sciences Institute, China has invested more than 100 million yuan (US$12 million) to start research on life sciences.
To date, 11 e-science grid nodes, where data in life sciences research can be shared by the two countries' scientists, have been established in China, while the UK has ten.
The UK was the first country in the world to develop the e-science concept.
(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2003)
