According to a Memorandum of Understanding jointly signed by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the two signatory parties will jointly finance the exchanges of research personnel based on the joint research projects between China and Scotland area.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh will provide a financing package up to 6,000 pounds to a joint research project on an annual basis, mainly as Chinese researchers' living expense in the UK and British researchers' airfare to China. Chinese National Natural Science Foundation will finance Chinese researchers' international airfare to the UK, and British researchers' living expense in China. In 2011, both sides will finance the projects in the area of information science.

The exchange project has started to take applications, with October 8, 2010 as the deadline. The application shall be submitted to National Natural Science Foundation West Europe Division. The results will be published online at the end of December 2010.