Today, the EU and China held the 17th EU-China Joint Steering Committee Meeting on Science and Technology in Beijing. The meeting was co-chaired by Ms Cristina Russo, Deputy Director-General for Innovation, Prosperity and International Cooperation at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), and Mr Zhu Xuehua, Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation at China’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
The two sides exchanged views on their evolving strategies for science, technology and innovation (STI), including China’s STI 15th Five-Year Plan and the EU’s next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10).
The EU and China also reviewed progress in implementing the two joint research flagships on Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology (FAB) and Climate Change and Biodiversity (CCB). Both sides presented the main findings of their respective monitoring and evaluation exercises, along with recommendations to improve the implementation and effectiveness of the flagships.
The meeting also provided an opportunity to take stock of cooperation in the wider institutional and multilateral context. Discussions covered, among others, human capital development and researcher mobility under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), as well as on phase 2 of the Multilatéral Dialogue on R&I values and principles.
The EU also reiterated its invitation to China to join the Global Ocean Eye Alliance, an initiative co-led by the EU and Canada to strengthen collective action on ocean observation, following its high-level launch in New York on 23 September 2026.
Background
The last JSCM took place on 28 November 2024 in Brussels and was co-chaired by Ms. Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General for Innovation, Prosperity, and International Cooperation, at DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission and Mr. DAI Gang, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China. It was the first in-person EU-China joint steering committee meeting on science and technology cooperation taking place since 2018.
