The benefits of research collaboration with China far outweigh the challenges, and Australia would be the main loser if it allowed foreign interference concerns to blind it to the opportunities, a conference has heard.

¡°The suggestion that China is impossible to deal with does not step up against the evidence,¡± said Queensland University of Technology (QUT) deputy vice-chancellor Scott Sheppard. ¡°It would be fair to say that we need China more than they need us.

¡°There are sensitive areas of research between our two countries. China has them just as we do. But¡­a sensible and proportionate way of dealing with that is simply good management. We do that now. We actually do it quite well.¡±

The forum on ¡°The future of Australia-China higher education ties¡± was hosted by the?. It heard that foreign influence concerns, along with Covid-related restrictions and the ¡°complete breakdown in bilateral government relations¡±, had hindered a ¡°boom¡± in scientific collaboration that had turned China into?Australia¡¯s leading partner in producing scientific publications.

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¡°We need to be wary of the chilling effects of geopolitical tensions and foreign interference concerns,¡± said University of Melbourne deputy vice-chancellor Michael Wesley, adding that challenges like climate change, pandemics and resource shortages were ¡°simply beyond the capacity of any national research capability¡±.

University of Sydney virologist?Eddie Holmes¡¯ work in mapping the Covid genome, in partnership with researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai, was ¡°a classic example of Australia-China research collaboration leading to the betterment of humanity¡±.

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Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson cited University of Queensland immunologist Ian Frazer¡¯s collaboration with Chinese colleague Jian Zhou to produce the Gardasil vaccine, leading to an estimated 90 per cent decrease in the prevalence of the virus that causes cervical cancer.

¡°It is our responsibility to work with government to ensure Australia¡¯s national security is never compromised. It¡¯s also our responsibility to do everything we can to continue enabling¡­research that will increasingly underpin our ongoing prosperity,¡± she said.

Ms Thomson said Australian co-publications with China had not declined during Covid, despite the geopolitics. And while China remained Australia¡¯s top research publication partner, it produced more collaborative science with both the US and the UK.

Professor Sheppard said Australia could not afford to lose a research partner with China¡¯s scale, depth of talent and international connections. He said China¡¯s dedication of 6 per cent of its GDP to research and development, with basic research claiming about 8 per cent of this investment, dwarfed such spending in the West.

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China had become a ¡°very significant player¡± in science diplomacy, with more than 400 Chinese scientists holding office in international science and technology-related non-government organisations ¨C many as chair or vice-chair.

¡°If you add this to the influence that China has in organisations like the International Organisation for Standardisation and the depth and breadth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, [it is] another very important reason you should be engaging with China,¡± Professor Sheppard said.

He cited work on air pollution ¨C a field where local funding was ¡°virtually impossible¡± to obtain, with Australia not considered to have air quality issues ¨C as an example of the benefits of collaboration. Chinese colleagues ¡°advised us right from the start that as long as the research was done in China; there was no issue with gaining funding¡±.

One of the participants, QUT aerosol researcher Lidia Morawska, went on to generate important insights about Covid transmission. ¡°That¡¯s been an enormously beneficial research area,¡± Professor Sheppard said.

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com