In recent years, China has become one of the world powers in science and innovation and a partner of great importance for the European Union (EU) to face global challenges, as highlighted in the European Commission Communication (EC) of May 2021 on the global approach to research and innovation.
However, given China's position as an economic and technological competitor of the EU, cooperation with that country in Research and Innovation (R&I) is being redesigned. The EU together with China are developing a joint roadmap to agree on framework conditions and guiding principles for cooperation in Research and Innovation in order to achieve a level playing field and reciprocity, while respecting fundamental values and stricter ethical and scientific integrity criteria.
On this basis, the EU and China are also identifying future research areas in which cooperation could lead to mutual benefits, such as climate change and biodiversity protection, circular economy, health, food, agriculture or ocean observation. In turn, Europe is promoting a unique and shared approach among all Member States (EEMM) of cooperation with the Asian country, which aims to be compatible with the characteristics and interests of each Member State.
The political framework and European research programs are the main source of financing for Spanish entities to collaborate with third countries, including China. The objective of this document, prepared from Casa Asia with the collaboration of the Fundació Institut Confuci of Barcelona, is to show the cooperation in Research and Innovation between Spain and China through the research funding framework programs of the European Union, as well as the collaboration opportunities that currently exist in Horizon Europe .
Section 1 of this document provides an overview of the EU's new international cooperation policy on Research and Innovation, guiding principles and points to consider regarding future Europe-China cooperation. As the research is not carried out in isolation but in transnational collaboration, it is important to know the European framework to understand the trends and future challenges of Spain-China collaboration.
Section 2 shows Spain-China cooperation in Research and Innovation from the 90s to the present, focusing on the period 2014-2020, corresponding to the Horizon 2020 program, the most fruitful to date.
Finally, in Section 3, the current opportunities for collaboration are presented, both at the level of the “Horizon Europe (2021-2027)” program in general and open calls in the period 2023-2024.
