China and the United Kingdom have made remarkable progress in mutual cooperation in the Internet sharing of science resources known as "e-science", a recent conference in Kunming, capital of southern China's Yunnan Province, has heard.
Scientists were now able to participate in the platform sharing of biological science resources, data exploration and knowledge analysis, said Li Yixue, professor with the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the China-UK E-Science Workshop.
With that platform, scientists from both countries could share information from each other's databases, said Li.
Currently, 11 e-science "grid-nodes", or special computer links, have been set up in cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Hong Kong.
E-science mainly refers to sharing science resources on the second generation Internet and its research could enable scientists to share resources from distant scientific bodies and make international scientific cooperation more convenient, said Li.
China's Ministry of Science and Technology had allocated more than 100 million yuan (US$12.1 million) to promote e-science, with the biological field given top priority, Li said.
(Xinhua New Agency February 6, 2003)
