China's Science Silk Road

As part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has launched the "Science Silk Road" program, aimed at investing in science, technology and innovation in countries along this newly envisioned Silk Road. Be it Chinese researchers designing data centers in Southeast Asia and smart cities in Africa, or collaborating with Latin American countries on deep-space exploration, the Science Silk Road has led to the rapid emergence of new science infrastructures and networks with complex implications for the South, North and beyond. Observers suggest that the Science Silk Road may be exporting a distinct form of "Chinese science," potentially giving rise to specific ways of doing science and alternative structures of the global science system. While the Science Silk Road promises to foster research and innovation that addresses global challenges and promotes sustainable development, it also signifies a new area of geopolitical contestation between the US and China.

However, little is currently known about whether, and how, the Science Silk Road shapes research, society, and development in BRI countries and globally. To fill this gap, the Volkswagen Foundation has awarded a major international collaborative grant to the Lise Meitner Research Group “China in the Global System of Science” at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Department of Political Science at Université Laval in Canada to conduct one of the first in-depth analyses of the Science Silk Road. Jointly led by Prof Anna Lisa Ahlers, Prof Han Cheng, and Prof Hang Zhou, over the course of four years, this ambitious project will critically map out the Science Silk Road’s multi-level impacts on BRI countries, established science powers, and international scientific cooperation. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from international relations, sociology of science, science and technology studies, anthropology and geography, this project will contribute to theoretical and policy debates at the intersection of science, development, and geopolitics in the 21st century.