On April 23, 2007, the SER and the MOST signed a further agreement to implement an action phase SSSTC, from 2008 to 2011. With an increased funding for the SSSTC, an expansion of the priority areas, increased flexibility and an enlarged scope of the program are planned.

From Swiss perspectives, the goals for the action phase SSSTC are to:

·         Strengthen the academic ties between Switzerland and China through research and academic collaborations;

·         Increase the visibility of Swiss universities and research institutions in China through faculty and student exchange;

·         Encourage long term institutional cooperation between Swiss and Chinese education and research institutions.

For this period, the two countries will each commit CHF 2-3 Mio per year for joint research projects and joint labs in selected fields. The proposals will be peer-reviewed – in Switzerland by the Swiss National Science Foundation –, and forwarded to a joint committee that will make the final selection. An open call for interested research groups with all the necessary information on the type of activities, research fields and institutions qualified to be funded will be launched by the two Swiss institutions in charge of the national coordination of the program (Leading Houses), ETH Zurich and University of Zurich. The authority in charge on the Chinese side is the Ministry of Science and Technology; other important Chinese players are the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation.