Press Release: EU and China to link up high-speed electronic networks for an open exchange among their best researchers and students

Communication and collaboration among 45 million researchers and students across Europe and China was to be greatly facilitated by a new Sino-European high-speed network connection announced on 28 April 2006. Co-funded by the European Union, China and European National Research and Education Networks, the €4.15 million ORIENT (Oriental Research Infrastructure to European NeTworks) project was to benefit all Sino-European research, including radio astronomy, sustainable development, meteorology, and grid computing, by helping to step up the flow of information between Europe and China. The ORIENT project was to be supported by the EU’s 6th Research Framework Programme.