Germany-based chemical company BASF has established a "Sino-German Research & Development Fund" worth $3.5 million. The fund, which is being administered by the company's East Asia Scientific Liaison Office set up in Shanghai in 1997, will run until 2000.

The fund aims to promote cooperation between Chinese and BASF scientists in chemical research and also to finance a scholarship program to support Chinese B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. students. In addition, it will help several Chinese Ph.D.s to continue their studies and research at German universities or at BASF's research laboratories in Germany.

"We find that the quality of science being carried out at the various institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the top universities in China, such as those at Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, and Tianjin, is very good," comments Lukas Haeussling, director of the BASF scientific liaison office. "At present, we are supporting about 20 projects in fields such as catalysis, organic synthesis, pigments, polymers, nanocomposites, and biotechnology.

Haeussling: BASF has a very high interest

[Photo by Michael Freemantle]

"BASF is the largest direct foreign investor in the chemical industry in China and therefore has a very high interest in scientific research and product development in the country," according to Haeussling. He points out that BASF has already invested about $660 million in 10 or so joint-venture companies and aims to make an even larger investment in the future (C&EN, April 20, page 41).

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