Scientific collaborations shine on Belt and Road

Abstract

In 2014, China launched the so-called Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative (officially abbreviated as Belt and Road Initiative, or B&R) to promote economic and infrastructure cooperation in Asia and East Europe. Besides promising billions of dollars investment and financial aid, China has also vowed to increase science and technology (S&T) collaboration with countries covered in the initiative: currently 65 countries in West Asia, Southeast Asia, South and Central Asia, former Soviet Union, and East and Central Europe. The B&R Initiative reached a milestone when leaders of 28 nations gathered in Beijing between 14 and 15 May 2017 for a summit to map out its roadmap. At the summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced investment of 100 billion yuan (US$14.5 billion) into the Silk Road Fund established in 2014 by China. Along with the governments investment, President Chunli Bai of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has also announced a blueprint of an S&T cooperation network, to be completed by 2030. To examine how scientific collaboration can promote the development of B&R countries, National Science Review (NSR) recently interviewed Huadong Guo, Chinas leading scientist on remote sensing and the chief architect of the Digital Belt and Road (DBAR) International Science Program, which is aimed at adopting and developing remote sensing technologies to serve the interests of countries involved in the B&R Initiative. Guo spoke about the origin, application and future of the Digital Silk Road and its implications to S&T cooperation among Belt and Road countries. In addition, we interviewed Liying Yang, a senior bibliometrics researcher, on the status of collaborations, and Gang Zhao, a leading science policy advisor, on policy issues associated with the Belt and Road Initiative.