Zahlavi

EU relations with China: Restricting Chinese access to EU research funding?

Fri Aug 25 11:19:31 CEST 2023

Amidst concerns over joint research benefits for China´s military, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has confirmed that the European Commission will change Horizon Europe rules to reflect Brussels’ assessment that Chinese telecoms giants Huawei and ZTE are “high risk”.

The newest article on EU research relations with China in Science-Business states that this proclamation follows a revelation that "EU cash was flowing to Chinese telecoms giant’s European subsidiaries. So far 10 member states have imposed restrictions on telecoms supplies seen as risky." The Commission intends now to impose more restrictions in all relevant EU funding programmes and instruments including in all parts of the Horizon Europe framework programme. However, it is not know yet what would their form and from when would such changes apply.

Available data shows that "across all EU framework programmes, Huawei has been a partner in 53 projects, including 28 during Horizon 2020, which ran from 2014-2020. Still, the Horizon Europe projects in question constitute only a small fraction of the collaboration Huawei does with European partners. In Germany alone, the company has entered into more than 228 research collaborations since 2006, according to its own information."

Nonetheless, in an older article Science-Business authors recall that concerns over technological espionage, intellectual property theft and disclosure of sensitive technological knowhow, especially that which could benefit Chinese military are not new though. Already in 2021, the Commission presented a major policy document, the Global Approach to Research and Innovation warning that China is an economic competitor and a systemic rival to the EU and the EU-China research relations should be revised. At the same time, collaboration with Chinese scholars in the fields of forest management and resilience, climate change or biodiversity, food or sustainable economy have been advantageous and promising and much desired to tackle global issues and it is believed to be maintained despite significant hurdles in the administration of these projects, the mobility of scientists, as well as the Chinese government's disquieting oversight of project members.

 

photo: pixabay

 

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