The "2015 Research and Innovation Tour" of China ended on Wednesday and saw more than 2,000 Chinese researchers and innovators get firsthand information about opportunities and benefits of collaboration between China and Europe.

The tour — one of the major activities during this celebratory year of the 40th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations — ended at Guangzhou's Sun Yat Sen University after travelling to 16 cities in 15 provinces.

This year's tour was the fourth edition of a campaign to raise awareness about an array of European research and innovation opportunities. The tour demonstrated opportunities for creating win-win solutions offered by European national bilateral funding programmes. It introduced the multilateral cooperation offered by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 and in particular its new Work Programmes 2016/2017 that have just been launched and where participation is fully open to the world. The upcoming Co-Funding Mechanism to be published by the Ministry of Science and Technology will provide matching funds for China-based entities in successful Horizon 2020 projects.

With a total audience of 2,000 researchers, scientists, university leaders and faculty staff, Chinese entrepreneurs and innovative company representatives but also provincial and municipal science and technology authorities, the 2015 Tour doubled the outreach of all previous tour editions combined.

Throughout the different cities, representatives from 17 different EU member states, two Associated Countries to Horizon 2020, the European Union and EURAXESS, the platform connecting researchers from Europe and China, gave presentations of respective national policies and funding programmes in research and innovation.

Highlights of tour seminars included testimonials from 63 distinguished Chinese and European researchers who presented their experiences of scientific collaboration with European partners, showing the audience the benefits of engaging with European peers.