The project “Dynamic mechanisms of huge rock avalanches in the south edges of Tibetan Plateau along the China-Nepal economic corridor”, applied by Professor Cheng Qiangong of Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, was approved for the cooperative research project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in 2017, with a direct funds of 2 million yuan.

According to the memorandum of understanding signed by the NSFC and ICIMOD and subsequent consensus on cooperation, both sides collected projects in the fields of “cross-border watershed and biogeochemical cycle”, “ecosystem evolution”, “geological disasters”, etc., in 2017. These co-collecting collaborative research projects will jointly fund Chinese scientists to cooperate with ICIMOD scientists to promote the development of China and neighboring countries. At the beginning of project collecting stage, 32 applications were submitted on May 26, 2017. Among these submitted applications, 27 went through the screening process of NSFC on June 16 and 12 applications went through the peer-reviewed process on September 22. Finally, a total of 8 projects won the support from NSFC after a fierce defence.