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Russia, China and the geopolitics of global science

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This report, led by former universities minister Jo Johnson, argues that Western universities need to brace for a geopolitical shock that could dislocate global research networks and dramatically narrow the range of potential collaborative partners.

While isolating Russia’s research system in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine has had little effect on global science, taking a similar approach to China would trigger a profound shock to the global knowledge economy, it finds.

This report was published jointly with the Harvard Kennedy School. The study draws on new data from 20,000 academic journals indexed by ClarivateTM to reveal Russia and China’s contrasting weights when it comes to scientific research and collaboration.