Recently, global data analytics firm "Clarivate Analytics" released the "2023 Report on the Current Status of International Research Collaboration in China," analyzing the situation of scientific research collaboration between China and major countries and regions worldwide from 2013 to 2022. The report points out that the scale of international research collaboration among the top 10 scientific research powerhouses globally, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany, continues to expand, while the quality and influence of China's international research collaboration are steadily increasing.
However, it is noteworthy that despite the relatively stable number of international research collaboration papers published by China, there has been a continuous and significant decline in growth rates. As for the proportion of international research collaboration papers, China has been steadily declining since 2019, dropping to below 20% in 2022. In contrast, the proportions for the UK, France, and Australia range between 50% and 60%.
Knowledge knows no borders, and collaboration is the trend. With the continuous advancement of science and technology, the importance of international research collaboration is becoming increasingly prominent. In the 2021 revision of the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Science and Technology Progress," the previously scattered content related to international scientific and technological cooperation was consolidated into a separate chapter, highlighting "international scientific and technological cooperation" as an important part of China's scientific and technological innovation work, with university research collaboration being a core element of high-level education's international openness.
From a global perspective, international research collaboration is considered one of the important pathways to drive the construction of world-class universities. For example, international research collaboration papers at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the UK consistently account for over 50%, reaching nearly 65% in 2022, while Harvard University and Stanford University in the United States have international research collaboration paper proportions around 50%.
In comparison, despite strong support and expansion of international research collaboration by relevant departments and universities in China, the gap between domestic universities and the world's top universities in this indicator remains significant.
The importance of international research collaboration papers lies in the fact that research outcomes generated through international exchanges and cooperation can achieve higher visibility globally. Some universities, despite having a considerable volume of research outcomes, have a relatively low proportion of international research collaboration papers, which hinders their overall global academic reputation and international influence.
This indicates that increasing the level of international exchanges and cooperation in research is beneficial for enhancing the academic influence of Chinese universities. Particularly for top research universities, enhancing their international research collaboration capabilities is not only important but also urgent because these universities are indispensable core nodes in expanding international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation, strengthening the internationalization of research environments, and forming globally competitive open innovation ecosystems in China.
In summary, when researchers from different countries come together, collide with viewpoints and thoughts, and share research facilities and various resources, it helps stimulate global research vitality and accelerate global technological progress. Chinese universities should always adhere to promoting scientists' strengthening of international exchanges and cooperation, connecting with the forefront of global science and technology, and gradually achieving self-reliance and self-improvement through comprehensive exchanges and cooperation.
In recent years, despite some phenomena of deglobalization in the international science and technology field, the trend of global flow and sharing of knowledge remains unchanged. Many countries and regions in the world deserve our active expansion of cooperation. With the continuous development of science and technology, the increasingly close economic and trade relations globally, and the accelerated frequency of international talent mobility, globalization and international cooperation remain the core driving forces for world progress and development. In fact, only by allowing more developing countries to fully access and utilize more advanced technologies can it be more conducive to humanity's joint response to various global issues and promote sustainable human development.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, international scholarly visits and visits abroad by domestic university teachers and researchers experienced a cliff-like decline due to various factors. As the most important means to promote international research collaboration, the obstruction of the above measures inevitably restricts the growth of international research collaboration among Chinese universities. After the pandemic, many universities have made many efforts to restore international exchanges and cooperation, but progress has not been as fast as expected due to the impact of the international environment.
Some countries have adopted strategies to restrain or even block China in cutting-edge research fields, but they still maintain relatively high openness in areas such as climate change and clean energy, which Chinese universities should seize as a basic trend and seize the opportunity to actively expand cooperation—
Firstly, deepening international research collaboration remains a top priority. Chinese universities should accurately position themselves according to the development stage of international exchanges and cooperation and formulate strategies for international research collaboration.
Secondly, some top research universities need to shift from a mindset of being "aided" or "lagging behind" and learn to take on greater responsibilities in international research collaboration.
Thirdly, Chinese universities should shift away from the mindset that North America and Western Europe are the primary targets for scientific research collaboration. Instead, they should precisely analyze and seek cooperation partners on a global scale and establish more diverse and multi-dimensional cooperation models.
Additionally, efforts should be made to enhance the construction of international exchange and cooperation teams, attaching importance to the training of full-time international affairs personnel and the improvement of international exchange and cooperation capabilities for all researchers, promoting their continuous expansion of global academic networks through more comprehensive international exchanges and cross-cultural interactions.
Finally, efforts should be made to overcome the problem of the aging of international exchange and cooperation communities, expanding more stable cooperation relationships among young and middle-aged international affairs workers and academics, continuously expanding the "circle of friends" for international research collaboration among Chinese universities.
